Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 67:

In page 46, subsection (1)(a), line 52, after “board” to insert the following:“and that as far as is practicable, serving teachers will be transferred within the boundaries of their current VEC administrative areas and will only be deployed within 45km of their current VEC place of work or confines of the original VEC area”.

These amendments arise because in some cases it is proposed to amalgamate a number of VECs which will cover a large geographical area. There is a concern among teaching staff within particular VECs that when the amalgamation happens, and because the ETB will be much larger geographically, a teacher could be transferred from one end of a county to another, or even to a different county. Where re-deployment has to take place it should happen within agreed existing structures.

The amendments have been tabled to get this matter onto the agenda so that we can discuss it and hear the Minister's view on how he plans to proceed.