Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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270. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the procedure that exists for the transfer of a teacher from one supplementary panel to another; if such transfers are common; the body responsible for administering such requests; the criteria for a transfer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45620/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers to other schools that have vacancies. The redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers is key to the Department's ability to manage within its payroll budget and ceiling on teacher numbers. Thereafter, schools are required under the panel arrangements to fill permanent vacancies from supplementary panels comprised of eligible fixed-term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers. In any given year there will be a number of teachers on these panels that do not secure a permanent post. The redeployment arrangements are published annually in the staffing circular which is placed on the Department website. The redeployment arrangements for the 2013/14 school year are set out in Circular 0013/2013 which is available on the website. The arrangements for access to the supplementary panel were published in Circualar 0038/2012 which is also available on the website.

Preparation for the staffing and redeployment process for the 2014/15 school year is currently underway in my Department. The arrangements for access to the supplementary panel will be published in the relevant circular which is expected to be placed on the Department website in the coming weeks.

Redeployment panels are drawn up on a diocesan basis for Catholic panels, diocesan/united diocesan basis for Church of Ireland panels and on a national basis for other patron bodies. The detail relating to numbers on individual redeployment panels is placed on the Department website when the panels are published each year.

Outside of this process the administration of transfer requests from teachers placed on redeployment panels is at the discretion of individual panel operators (patron bodies).