Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 November 2012
96. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Education and Skills the person who makes the decisions regarding the supplementary panel for primary teachers; the number currently on the supplementary panel for west Limerick; if after 5 November the panel will be frozen; if there are persons on it that do not have a job, if they go back down to the end of the panel again; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53461/12]
View answerThe arrangements for panel access for fixed term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers for 2012/13 school year are set out in Department Circular 0012/2012. The panels set up in accordance with the arrangements set out in this circular were used for appointments to full-time permanent teaching posts but only where those posts were not otherwise required to facilitate the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers. The closing date for application under this circular was Friday, 20 April, 2012. Under the staffing arrangements for the current school year which are set out in Department Circular 0007/2012 the latest date for filling a permanent post on a permanent basis through the subsidiary/supplementary panels was the first working day of November. Thereafter, unless there is a surplus permanent teacher to be redeployed, posts are filled on a fixed term basis and if sustained by a school will be filled from the relevant redeployment panel in the 2013/14 school year.
My Department has just recently published Circular 0038/12 setting out the arrangements for panel access for fixed term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers to the Supplementary Redeployment Panel for the 2013/14 school year. The closing date for application is 14 December, 2012.
The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers to other schools that have vacancies. The redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers is key to the Department's ability to manage within its payroll budget and ceiling on teacher numbers.
Thereafter, schools are required under the panel arrangements to fill permanent vacancies from panels (subsidiary and supplementary) set up of eligible fixed-term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers. For the 2012/13 school year there were close to 1,700 such teachers on these panels. In any given year there will be a number of teachers on these panels that do not secure a permanent post.
All circulars referenced are available on my Department's website.
