Vol. 383 No. 8
asked the Minister for Education the circumstances involved in her Department's decision to make an offer to three principal teachers and two teachers in the Tipperary North Riding Vocational Education Committee Scheme under the voluntary redundancy retirement scheme, sanction for which has not been given by her; if her attention has been drawn to the hardship, inconvenience and major embarrassment caused by this indecision; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
256.
asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to the severe difficulties being experienced by Tipperary North Riding Vocational Educational committee arising out of her failure (a) to finalise the teacher allocation for Tipperary North Riding Vocational Education Committee and (b) to sanction the appointment of four teachers whose posts are in dispute in Roscrea Vocational School; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that failure to sanction these posts has (1) caused undue personal distress to the teachers involved, (2) the serious implications for the provision of a proper education service for the 480 students in the school and Tipperary North Riding Vocational Education Committee generally and (3) made the proper management of the scheme practically impossible; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 255 and 256 together.
My Department are currently working to finalise the 1988-89 teacher allocation for Tipperary North Riding VEC in the light of the most up to date information supplied by the committee about teacher numbers and pupil enrolments. Officials of my Department will shortly be meeting with the chief executive officer of the VEC to discuss the matter further. It is hoped to issue the final allocation to the committee as soon as possible thereafter. Urgent consideration is also being given in the context of the teacher allocation to the status of the four teachers referred to by the Deputy.
In late August tentative offers of redundancy were made in the case of five teachers in Tipperary North Riding based on information available at the time. In the light of difficulties arising in relation to the allocation of teachers as outlined above, it has not been possible to confirm these offers.
