Thank you for allowing me raise this serious matter this evening. I wish to share my time with my constituency colleague, Deputy Browne.
Adjournment Debate. - Carlow Regional Technical College Teaching Staff.
I am sure that is satisfactory and agreed.
To date, the Minister for Education and her Department have not sanctioned the appointment of any non-permanent staff in Carlow regional technical college. Contracts have not been signed between the college and any of the non-permanent staff. That is not acceptable. We are now almost five weeks into the 1996-7 academic year, yet up to 40 non-permanent teaching staff in Carlow regional technical college do not know when and if they will be paid for the work they do. Some of the academic staff in the college have contracts going back ten years, and those contracts are renewed on an annual basis. The staff and their families are devastated by the conduct of the Minister and her officials in not ensuring this matter was resolved prior to the beginning of the academic year. It is a poor practice for any Department, but particularly the Department of Education, to allow this serious situation to continue.
The Minister has tried to hide behind the Regional Technical Colleges Act of 1992. It is just not fair to say it is a function of the regional technical college management and that they alone are the cause of this problem. All information requested by the Minister and the officials in her Department has been submitted and any delay in the implementation of these agreements is now the sole responsibility of the Department of Education. The ball is firmly in the Minister's court and she should act immediately.
There is outrage among the staff in the college at the conduct of the Department in this matter, and a number of questions need to be answered. Are the non-permanent teaching staff in Carlow regional technical college being used as hostages in a conflict between the Department of Education and the Carlow regional technical college management? Why did the Minister's Department not intervene before now to resolve this problem when the officials in the Department were made aware of it? Is the Minister prepared to give a commitment to this House to have the matter resolved immediately?
I call on the Minister to use all her influence to ensure this matter is resolved and that the hardship, worry and stress which has been caused to a small group of teaching staff in the Carlow area is resolved.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): I thank my colleague, Deputy Nolan, for giving me some of his very short time. Like him I am concerned about the present situation in the regional college in Carlow. There is a strike on the administrative side, which does not make communication easy. It is indefensible that at the start of the academic year teachers who have served the college well over many years do not know whether they will be paid or if they will have temporary full-time jobs. It is absurd. We want to see the regional college in Carlow at the top of the tree, and this kind of carry on does nothing for the college. It is grossly unfair to the students, teachers and lecturers. I hope the Minister of State has good news for us and, if not, that he will at least bang some heads together and get a result that is good for the Carlow college.
I am grateful to the Deputy for raising this matter and for the opportunity it affords me to clarify the position. The Regional Technical Colleges Act, 1992, states:
A college may appoint such and so many persons to be its officers (in addition to the Director) and servants as, subject to the approval of the Minister given with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, the Governing Body from time to time thinks proper.
Accordingly, the function of the Minister for Education in relation to staffing of the colleges is to sanction a quota of posts for each institution. The arrangements for filling vacant posts within the overall quota of sanctioned posts and sanctioned levels are matters for the college management. There is, therefore, no involvement by my Department in the matter of filling posts in the college which have been sanctioned in accordance with the requirements of the regional technical college Act. In a letter to the Director of Carlow regional technical college on 13 August, his attention was drawn to the fact that sanction for the creation of posts is a matter exclusively for the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance. It was also pointed out that the college would need to continue to seek departmental sanction for the creation of new and additional posts, permanent or temporary, or any upgrading to posts already sanctioned.
The position in Carlow regional technical college is that my Department sanctioned a quota of posts for the college which has been increased over the years to take account of increased student numbers and various other relevant circumstances. The Deputies will be aware there are constraints on numbers employed in the public service generally. It is incumbent on college management to be aware of these constraints and to have regard to them when making demands on my Department for increased staffing numbers.
Demands from all institutions, at all levels of education, invariably exceed the resources available to my Department. Consequently, the allocation of resources is based on the priorities which are identified in consultation with the colleges. Following this it is the responsibility of local management to manage their institution within the quotas allocated by the Department.
For the academic year 1995-96, my Department sanctioned a total of ten additional permanent staff for Carlow regional technical college at Lecturer 1 level. This additional allocation was granted to take account of additional student numbers and to help the college to reduce its dependency on part-time staff. A case had been made by the college management to the Department about the difficulties it had encountered in finding suitable part-time lecturers and this difficulty was taken account of.
It should be noted that there were severe restrictions on additional staff numbers being recruited in the public service at this juncture. Consequently, the Department in its dealings with Carlow regional technical college was generous in its allocation of ten extra posts. Subsequently it transpired that there was a need to sanction an additional three posts at Lecturer 1 level in Carlow regional technical college to regularise appointments made.
Consequently, a total of 13 additional post at lecturer level has been added to the quota of sanctioned academic posts for Carlow regional technical college since September 1995. In discussions with the management of Carlow regional technical college regarding its quota of sanctioned posts in the context of ongoing monitoring of staffing in the sector generally, the college has sought sanction for an additional number of temporary academic posts i.e. 29 Lecturer 1 posts and five EPT posts. To evaluate this claim for such a large number of extra posts, the college was asked to submit a detailed analysis of its needs. It has been clearly indicated to the college in a number of letters and discussions on the matter that the application for extra staff must be supported by a comprehensive report to justify the demand.
To date, however, the information provided by the current management has been insufficient to enable the Department to assess the demand for extra staffing requirements and to determine how the demand ranks in terms of competing priorities. In the absence of the detailed information needed, it has not been possible for the Department to evaluate the college's overall staffing requirements or to decide how their requirements can be addressed. I am very anxious to have this matter fully clarified as I am aware that some staff have complained about problems arising in relation to their salaries and difficulties in renewing contracts.
I do not, however, have in my Department any background information as to why this situation exists as the quota of posts has been allocated and the budget has been issued to take account of both permanent and part-time staff payments. If there are problems arising because contracts have not been renewed in respect of posts which were not previously sanctioned by the Department this would be a matter of grave concern.
I emphasise that the onus is on the college management to provide my Department with full particulars of any difficulties which need to be addressed and to submit the detailed information needed to justify its request for additional staff.
I assure the Deputy that on receipt of the information requested by my Department the problem will be given full consideration as a matter of urgency.