Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2009
121 Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education and Science the action he will take in relation to Dublin Institute of Technology whereby due to the staff embargo, classes, lectures, library hours and science laboratories have been cut to the detriment of the students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37108/09]
View answer582 Deputy George Lee asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the quality of education at Dublin Institute of Technology is being affected by cutbacks (details supplied); his plans to rectify this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36769/09]
View answer632 Deputy Alan Shatter asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there are substantial difficulties evident in Dublin Institute of Technology since the start of the 2009-10 academic year; the steps he will take to address these difficulties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37405/09]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 121, 582 and 632 together.
As the Deputy is aware, the purpose of the Government decision to implement a recruitment and promotion moratorium in the public sector is to facilitate a permanent, structural reduction in the numbers of staff serving in the public sector and is intended to contribute significant and ongoing savings to the Exchequer. In applying this moratorium generally, teaching and research activities in the education sector have been afforded significant exemptions relative to other areas of public expenditure. Nonetheless, the Deputy will appreciate that the sector has to contribute towards overall public sector numbers reductions.
In the area of higher education, the Government agreed that an employment control framework be developed to provide for the application of the moratorium arrangements to higher education institutions, subject to the continued oversight and review by the HEA and both my Department and the Department of Finance. This framework allows flexibility around recruitment into posts that are considered essential to maintaining core teaching and research activities, subject to an overall ceiling on numbers employed. The Government is anxious to work with the publicly funded higher education institutions in achieving necessary reductions in public expenditure within the sector as an essential part of overall budgetary strategy. The employment control framework aims to enable this while providing sufficient flexibility for the protection of frontline teaching and research activities.
It is a matter for the individual higher education institutions, including Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), to manage their staffing resources in the context of implementing the framework. I understand that, within the terms of the employment control framework, the HEA are currently in discussions with DIT in relation to options for addressing some specific operational issues that have arisen there.
