Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on the Adjournment this evening. The Minister is committed to providing information on the allocation of teachers to schools and this is a new feature on the Department's website. The process has begun with the provision earlier this year of initial information on the allocation of mainstream classroom teachers to primary schools under the revised schedule for 2009-2010.

In terms of the position at individual primary school level, the key factor for determining the level of resources provided by the Department is the pupil enrolment at 30 September 2008. The annual process of seeking this enrolment data from schools took place in the autumn and the data has since been received and processed in the Department, enabling the commencement of the processes by which teaching resources are allocated to schools for the school year that begins next September.

The Department has written to the primary schools that are projected to have a net loss or gain in classroom teaching posts in September 2009. To ensure relevant information is openly available to the public, detailed information on the opening position for primary schools is now published on the Department's website. This provisional list sets out the details on individual schools that, taken collectively, are projected to gain 128 posts and to lose 382 posts, a net reduction of 254 posts. It is the Minister's intention to have this information updated and ultimately to set out the final position when the allocation processes are completed.

Within the terms of the staffing arrangements for primary schools there is provision for additional posts, referred to as developing school posts, to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the next school year. Under these arrangements, a developing school post may be sanctioned provisionally where the projected enrolment at 30 September of the school year in question equals or exceeds a specified figure. If the specified figure is not achieved on 30 September, sanction for the post is withdrawn.

The final position for any one school will depend on a number of factors such as the additional posts for schools that are developing rapidly, to which I have already referred, and posts allocated as a result of the appeals processes. The operation of redeployment arrangements also impacts on the final position as a teacher can remain in his or her existing school where a suitable redeployment position does not exist. The final staffing position for all schools will therefore not be known until the autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed for mainstream classroom teachers and appeals to the primary staffing appeals board will have been considered.

At its meeting on 14 May 2009, the appeal board considered an appeal submitted by the board of management of the school in question, Portlean national school. The appeal was considered under section 10 of the primary staffing schedule, circular 02/2009, which is available on the Department's website. The board decided that a departure from the staffing schedule was not warranted in this case. The appeals board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

I will set out for the Deputy the staffing arrangement in place if a school is losing a post due to falling enrolments. In such instance the most junior teacher is offered redeployment panel rights. The redeployment panel system, agreed between the patron bodies of primary schools and the INTO, serves as a means for redeployment of eligible permanent teachers in schools where posts are suppressed to schools with vacancies. Panels are determined by the patronage of the school and the final decision to admit a teacher to the panel rests with the patron.

Once the panel system is in operation schools are obliged to offer any permanent vacancy to teachers on the panel. Teachers placed on the panel are obliged to accept the first offer of employment from schools within a 45 km radius of their existing school. If a teacher has been on the panel for more than three years, the 45 km limit no longer applies. A teacher on the redeployment panel awaiting an offer of a teaching post in another school remains employed in his or her existing school and must act as replacement teacher for absences of other teachers in the school. The teacher placed on the redeployment panel from the school referred to by the Deputy has been successfully redeployed.

I thank the Deputy for providing me with the opportunity to address the House on this matter and to outline the position.

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