Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2013
339. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of posts of responsibility by grade lost in primary schools each year since the imposition of the moratorium on promotion in the public service; the number of applications for alleviation received by his Department in each year and the number of applications upheld by his Department in each year. [4330/13]
View answer340. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of posts of responsibility by grade lost in post primary schools each year since the imposition of the moratorium on promotion in the public service; the number of applications for alleviation received by his Department in each year and the number of applications upheld by his Department in each year. [4331/13]
View answerI propose to take questions 339 and 340 together.
When the moratorium on the filling of posts of responsibility was introduced the Government exempted Principal and Deputy Principal posts in all primary and post-primary schools and these posts continue to be replaced in the normal manner. The impact of the moratorium is therefore limited to the Director of Adult Education, Assistant Principal and Special Duties posts of responsibility. Vacancies at this level arise due to retirements in the specific grades and typically also from the knock on effect of filling Principal and Deputy Principal posts. Limited alleviation was introduced for schools that are acutely affected by the impact of the moratorium at Assistant Principal level. This alleviation is mainly focused on post-primary schools.
The detailed information requested by the Deputy would take some time to compile by staff in my Department. I do not therefore propose to divert them from their work on the staffing allocations for the 2013/14 school year. Instead I am providing you with the summary information on the overall impact of the moratorium since it was first introduced in March 2009. At that time about 53% of teachers had posts of responsibility. This has since reduced to about 39%. The following tables give some more detail on the overall position since the moratorium was introduced.
Level of Reduction in Posts of Responsibility
|
Post type |
Post Primary |
Primary |
|
Assistant Principal
|
-2,150 |
-751 |
|
Special Duties |
-1,900 |
-2,276 |
|
Total
|
-4,050 |
-3,027 |
Alleviation.
|
Post type |
Post Primary
|
Primary |
|
Director of Adult Education |
30 |
N/A |
|
Programme Co-ordinator (AP post) |
90 |
N/A |
|
Assistant Principal
|
307 |
38 |
|
Total
|
427 |
38 |
