Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 603: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if employees of his department are only allowed to apply for the Cycle to Work scheme between 1 and 15 December each year; if it will it be possible to change the practice in order to facilitate applications throughout the year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7850/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Cycle to Work Scheme is available to approximately 1,300 employees of my Department the whole year round and to date 37 employees have availed of it. The terms of the cycle to work scheme for approximately 60,000 teaching and non teaching staff who are employed by the managerial authorities of schools and paid on my Department's payrolls are set out in Circular 54/2009. This Circular provides that teachers must apply for the scheme no later than 15th December for the application of the arrangement in the following calendar year. The reason for this deadline is to ensure that all salary deductions under the scheme are completed within the calendar year following the application. This is necessary due to the large number of applications under the scheme. A total of 880 teachers applied for the scheme in 2010.