Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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219. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the mechanism to ensure the best expertise will be available to the teacher education section, junior cycle for teachers and national induction programme for teachers considering that his Department is imposing a limit to the number of years a teacher can spend on secondment. [27174/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department has recently advertised for posts in both the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) and National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT). Applicants are required to have a broad range of knowledge, experience and skills therefore ensuring that a high level of expertise will be in place for these positions. The competencies necessary for these posts are commensurate with the importance of the different roles in these Support Services and therefore I am satisfied that best practice is in place to ensure delivery of high quality continuous professional development to teachers and newly qualified teachers.

There was a large volume of applicants for the competition held for the JCT. The recruitment competition for the NIPT is still ongoing with the closing date later in the month. A limit of five years is imposed on all new secondments to my Departments programmes. This approach allows for turnover of personnel which is in line with good practice in terms of refreshing skills and expertise and also allows for benefits to accrue to the releasing school on the person's return.