Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Conway for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the position of the redeployment process. At the outset I should clarify that teacher qualifications, including those relating to Irish, are designed to equip teachers to teach in all publicly funded schools. The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary schools, including redeployment arrangements, are published annually. The staffing and redeployment arrangements for the 2014 and 2015 school year are available on the Department website.

Teaching vacancies are filled in the first instance through the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers. Thereafter, schools are required under the panel arrangements to fill permanent vacancies from supplementary panels comprised of eligible fixed-term temporary or substitute and part-time teachers. Redeployment panels are drawn up on a diocesan basis for Catholic panels, diocesan and united diocesan basis for Church of Ireland panels and on a national basis for other patron bodies. The Department reviews the redeployment process with the education partners each year to ensure the process is operating effectively. One of the outcomes of the review of the 2013 redeployment arrangements was that the redeployment process for the 2014 to 2015 school year would, on a pilot basis, give an opportunity to teachers being placed on main panels and supplementary panels to indicate if they were particularly interested in being redeployed to a school that operates through the medium of Irish. This pilot approach will be reviewed in the autumn of 2014. The purpose of this is to assist the school-led redeployment process for schools that operate through the medium of Irish.

When the redeployment panels are published, a period is given for schools with vacancies to fill their teaching posts from the list of teachers on the relevant panel. During this period there are informal and formal contacts between schools and teachers on the panels. This pilot scheme will make it easier for Gaelscoileanna and schools in the Gaeltacht to identify and contact those teachers who are particularly interested in being redeployed to a school that operates through the medium of Irish. The redeployment arrangements include provision for a panel officer to be appointed in the event that all the teachers on a panel have not been redeployed during the school-led redeployment process. The redeployment of all surplus teachers is key to the Department's ability to manage within its payroll budget and employment control framework on teacher numbers. Given our budgetary position, we need to have sufficient flexibility in the redeployment arrangements to ensure surplus teachers in all schools, regardless of patronage type, can be readily redeployed to vacancies wherever they exist.

The panel officer process commences with the school of the same patronage that is located nearest the school with the surplus teacher. The panel officer engages with the panel operator and with the school in his or her decision-making process. As part of this process the school is given an opportunity to provide any relevant information to the panel officer. This will now include information on whether a teacher on the panel has ticked the box expressing a particular interest in being redeployed to a school that operates through the medium of Irish. The panel officer, having considered the matter, will determine if the surplus teacher should be redeployed to the nearest school. The panel officer has discretion on this matter so as to facilitate, as best as possible, an appropriate match of a surplus teacher to a school. If the panel officer determines there are valid reasons for not redeploying the teacher to the nearest school, the above process commences with the next nearest school etc. until the panel officer has identified the school for the redeployment of the teacher.

It is important to note that the panel redeployment arrangements apply in the same manner for all schools, including those that operate through the medium of Irish. Specifically, all teachers on a redeployment panel may receive offers of appointment from Irish medium schools, irrespective of whether they have ticked the box to indicate a particular interest in same.

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