Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline for the House the arrangements for filling permanent teaching posts in our schools. Vacancies are filled in the first instance through the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers and this is the core function of the redeployment arrangements. The redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers is key to the Department's ability to manage within its payroll budget and ceiling on teacher numbers. Thereafter, schools are required under the panel arrangements to fill permanent vacancies from supplementary panels comprising eligible fixed-term and part-time teachers. When the supplementary panel process concludes, any remaining permanent vacancies are then filled by open recruitment through the standard advertising process.
Department circular 57/2013 was published last autumn and it set out the criteria that fixed-term and part-time teachers must meet for gaining access to the supplementary panel. The criteria include a requirement to be fully registered with the Teaching Council and be probated to work in all settings. The Teaching Council is responsible for procedures and criteria for the probation of teachers. In accordance with the council's current arrangements, where a primary teacher is employed and probated in a restricted setting, such as a special class, the probationary process is considered to be partially carried out and the teacher's registration will remain subject to the condition of probation. It is open to such teachers who complete the probationary process in a restricted setting, and who wish to complete the probationary process in full, to do so when they are teaching in a mainstream setting. Teachers who complete probation in a restricted setting are not subject to any time limit to complete probation in mainstream settings. This is the position applying to the teachers to whom the Senator refers. The teachers were not therefore given access to the supplementary panel.
It is open to the teachers to apply for fixed-term mainstream positions that are being filled by open recruitment through the public advertisement process. There are many such positions currently being advertised on the website educationposts.ie. Working in such positions would give the teachers an opportunity to get probated to work in a mainstream setting. This would enable them to gain access in the future to the supplementary panel, assuming they meet the other standard criteria as well. I hope this has helped to clarify the position for the Senator.