Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 249: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason the staff of a school (details supplied) have no idea of what they are to do when the school closes in a number of weeks in view of the fact that the decision to close the school was made three years ago; and her views on whether this is an acceptable way to treat staff who have given decades of service to a school. [13218/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with the terms of Towards 2016, my Department is actively engaged with the education partners to agree new arrangements in relation to the redeployment of teachers. The new arrangements will provide for redeployment of all teachers within an agreed distance on terms to be agreed. When the Department sought to include this matter in Towards 2016 it was particularly mindful of the situation of teacher's in schools like the one in question where no redeployment scheme existed. Under Towards 2016 it has been agreed with the teacher unions that the operation of the revised arrangements will ensure that all teachers who are surplus because of school closure as in the case of the school referred to by the Deputy are redeployed to meet the subject/course requirements of other schools. The timeline set in the agreement for conclusion of the discussions was deliberately aimed at ensuring that a new redeployment scheme would be in place this year. Intensive discussions are continuing with the teacher unions to that end. In addition to this, as an exceptional matter in the current year, staff in the school referred to by the Deputy have been given the option to apply for early retirement and a number of teachers have made such an application. These applications are currently being considered in my Department.