The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). The policy of my Department is to ensure, as far as possible, that the Managerial Authorities of Primary and Post Primary schools give priority to unemployed registered teachers who are fully qualified when filling vacant teaching posts. My Department has issued a number of Circulars addressing this issue in recent years. Circular 31/2011 details a cascade of measures for the recruitment of teachers, prioritising registered teachers over retired registered teachers and unregistered people. It states that each employer shall ensure that each person proposed for appointment to a teaching post for which salary grant is being sought must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which he/she is to be employed.
There is a requirement in the post primary redeployment schemes that all vacancies be notified to the Department for filling by redeployment in accordance with agreed arrangements. The procedures and sequence for filling available teacher posts are outlined in Circulars 0059/2016 and 0049/2017.
