Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 202: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is satisfied that our education service which is dependent on teachers, lecturers and tutors will be adequately staffed after the deadline for retirement in February 2012; the number of teachers that are planning to retire, the number of principal posts, heads of department posts, professorships and associated professorships who will retire and accept early redundancy in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3571/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is very conscious of the potential impact on service provision of the expected increase in retirements on or before 29 February 2012. The effective management of staffing resources within Employment Control Frameworks and/or the moratorium on public sector numbers is ongoing within each organisation in the education sector, through prioritisation of work and working practices. This process is regularly monitored to ensure continued effective delivery of key services. However, unlike other parts of the public sector, our school going population is rising rapidly. Places have to be provided for the extra 70,000 pupils arriving in our schools in the next six years. Teachers will have to be appointed to teach them. As Minister for Education and Skills, I will ensure every child has a physical place in which to go to school.

That is why, despite the need to reduce teacher numbers and the other spending reductions that have been made, the overall number of teachers employed in our schools is about 200 below what they were in 2008. This represents a net overall reduction of about 0.3% in the overall number of teachers despite several changes to the PTR at both primary and second level. Under the terms of the current ECF, my Department has delegated sanction to fill vacancies arising in teaching and at third level, subject to the ceiling figures for those areas not being exceeded.

To reduce the impact on students preparing for the State examinations, I am allowing schools to re-employ until the end of the school year teachers who retire between 1 December 2011 and 29 February 2012 and who had been teaching classes sitting State exams in 2012 before their retirement. In the case of teachers who are not teaching exam classes, replacements can be employed until the end of the school year, subject to the numbers frameworks. It is a matter for each third level institution to manage its own retirements as they arise. They have delegated sanction to fill certain vacancies, subject to the ceiling figures set out in their individual ECF.

Should any organisation suffer such a level of retirements that it cannot effectively order and prioritise its work and working practices, it can apply for an exception to the moratorium from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The projected numbers of teachers who will retire between 1 January and 29 February 2012 is set out in the table. Information relating to projected retirements in the higher education sector and on the breakdown of retirement applications by grade is not readily available at this time. This information is being collated and will be forwarded as soon as possible.