Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the appointment of a teacher at a school (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8903/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I regret that it is not possible to give a derogation to any individual school in relation to the requirements of Circular 67/2010. The rationale for this circular was to maximise the opportunities for the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers. The process of allocating teaching resources to schools for 2011/2012 and the arrangements for filling vacant or new teaching posts, including temporary posts, takes place in the context of the EU/IMF Programme of Support for Ireland and the Public Service Agreement 2010/2014. It is necessary for my Department to exercise additional control and reporting measures this year to ensure that the numbers of teachers employed in schools is consistent with the EU/IMF Programme of Support for Ireland.

This requires that all permanent and fixed term positions are in the first instance made available to those surplus teachers with either permanent contracts or contracts of indefinite duration. The Deputy will understand that flexible redeployment arrangements are required in order to ensure all surplus permanent teachers are redeployed into vacancies. The country simply cannot afford to have surplus teachers in a school while permitting recruitment to take place in another school. It is the intention of the Department to restore recruitment from fixed-term teachers on the main panels, supplementary panels or public advertisement at the earliest possible opportunity, after all the surplus permanent teachers have been redeployed.