Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reform the teacher panel system to allow for a specific panel in respect of vacancies for teachers in gaelscoileanna; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14868/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Over half of the Gaelscoileanna are under Catholic patronage and the redeployment of surplus teachers from these schools is through the relevant diocesan panels. Under the existing redeployment arrangements a board of management has the right to interview, once there is more than one teacher on a panel.

My Department had discussions recently with An Foras Pátrúnachta in relation to its request for a separate panel for Gaelscoileanna under its patronage. These discussions are on-going and a key issue for my Department is how best to facilitate this request in a manner that avoids the inherent inefficiencies of a separate panel for a relatively small number of schools. Given our budgetary situation we need to have sufficient flexibility in the redeployment arrangements to ensure that surplus teachers in all schools regardless of patronage type can be readily redeployed to vacancies wherever they exist.

The existing arrangements for the redeployment of surplus teachers operate between schools of the same patronage and are not certain to bring about the redeployment of all surplus teachers. To address the current limitations my Department has recommenced discussions with the relevant education partners, including An Foras Pátrúnachta, on changes necessary to achieve our objective of absorbing all surplus teachers into vacancies that exist in other schools. These discussions can also deal with the request for a separate redeployment panel for Gaelscoileanna under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta.