Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties of access to the main or supplementary teaching panels for teachers who have been teaching in special schools since qualifying as primary teachers and who have a minimum of five years teaching experience; the efforts being made to find an acceptable resolution to the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27423/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Teaching Council is responsible for procedures and criteria for the probation of teachers. In accordance with the Council's current arrangements, where a primary teacher is employed and probated in a restricted setting such as a special class, the probationary process is considered to be partially carried out and the teacher's registration will remain subject to the condition of probation. It is open to such teachers who complete the probationary process in a restricted setting, and who wish to complete the probationary process in full, to do so when they are teaching in a mainstream setting. Teachers who complete probation in a restricted setting are not subject to any time limit to complete probation in mainstream settings.

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. The arrangements for panel access for fixed term (temporary), substitute and part-time teachers for the 2014/15 school year are set out in Circular 0057/2013 which is available on the Department website.