Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 513: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the involvement he had in connection with the retention of a teaching post at a school (details supplied) in County Clare following the expected loss of this post to the school in line with the regulations under the staffing schedule at post primary level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38264/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The allocation of teaching resources to second level schools has operated on the basis of a well established allocation process based on transparent allocation rules, with an independent appellate process available to schools. In the interest of fairness and consistency for all schools it has been established practice that schools deal with Department officials and the Independent Appeals Committee in relation to the allocation of teaching resources rather than have one or more schools seeking direct access to the Minister to plead a special case. I was concerned that if I met directly with this school or with members of the Oireachtas that I would in effect be prejudicing the future effectiveness of the independent appellate process. The school authorities met with Department officials on Monday 6th October 2008. This meeting was to provide the school authorities with an opportunity to clarify how they propose to plan future subject provision at the school in order to operate the school within allocation. Having considered the matter and recognising that the school had clearly acted on advice provided by the Department at that meeting, as an exceptional matter my Department allocated an additional 12.59 hours. It is regrettable that it was only subsequent to the meeting with my officials on 6 October last, that the school provided assurances for the first time that it would address the core issue of how in future it would operate within the approved allocation and that this happened after the Appeals Committee had concluded its work for the 2008/2009 school year. It has been forcefully put to the school authorities that this allowance must be regarded as an interim measure in the current school year simply to provide the school with time to make the necessary adjustments.