asked the Minister for Education if the vacancy for the position of Head of the Department of Business Management and General Studies in the Regional Technical College, Cork has been filled; if so, if it was filled in accordance with the advertisement which required a knowledge of Irish to Ceard Teastais level; if the successful candidate has yet taken up duty and, if not, why; and if all candidates who applied have been informed whether they were successful or not.
Written Answers. - Regional College Post.
324.
An appointment has been made to the post in question by the City of Cork Vocational Education Committee and this appointment has been sanctioned.
The appointed candidate had been deemed by the selection board to be the best qualified and most suitable of all the applicants for the post.
While the appointed candidate did not hold An Ceard Teastas Gaeilge, neither did any of the other applicants interviewed.
In the matter of Irish language requirements the position is that the regulations, as the advertisement for this post indicated, specify a knowledge of Irish of the standards of the Ceard Teastas as a general rule.
I understand that the appointed candidate has not yet taken up duty in the post and that the board of management of the college has acceded to his request that for personal reasons his date of taking up duty be deferred until the beginning of January, 1978.
I understand also that of the 20 applicants for the post, 18 have been notified that their applications were not successful and that one candidate, other than the presently proposed appointee, has not yet been so notified.