Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013
58. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teachers on each of the teaching panels in County Donegal over the past five years; the number of teachers expected to qualify for inclusion on each panel in County Donegal in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43223/13]
View answerThe 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 supplementary panels comprised of eligible fixed-term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers. In any given year there will be a number of teachers on these panels that do not secure a permanent post. The redeployment arrangements are published annually in the staffing circular which is placed on the Department website. The redeployment arrangements for the 2013/14 school year are set out in Circular 0013/2013 which is available on the website. The arrangements for access to the supplementary panel were published in Circualar 0038/2012 which is also available on the website.
Redeployment panels are drawn up on a diocesan basis for Catholic panels, diocesan/united diocesan basis for Church of Ireland panels and on a national basis for other patron bodies. Information on a county basis is therefore not available in my Department. The detail relating to numbers on individual redeployment panels is placed on the Department website when the panels are published each year. My Department updates the progress of the panels on the website on a regular basis.
Over the last five years approximately 2,500 surplus permanent teachers have been redeployed, an average of 500 each year. Over 4,500 fixed term (temporary/substitute) teachers were placed on supplementary panels during this period (2,800 of which were in the last 2 years).
Preparation for the staffing and redeployment process for the 2014/15 school year is currently underway in my Department. The size of the redeployment panels will not be known until early in 2014.
