Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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477. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to allow permanent teachers to make a permanent teacher exchange move, pending approval by the board of management of both schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8929/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The teacher exchange scheme provides a facility for primary teachers to voluntarily exchange with a teacher in another school. The minimum period for which an exchange may occur is one year and the maximum is five years.

The exchange scheme was agreed under the auspices of the Teacher's Conciliation Council, a body established in accordance with the terms of the Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme for Teachers. The Council is comprised of representatives of teachers, school management, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, chaired by an official of the Labour Relations Commission. Any changes to the exchange scheme are therefore a matter for consideration in the first instance at the Teachers' Conciliation Council.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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478. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to allow teachers on the temporary teacher exchange programme to count their years on teacher exchange towards panel rights, in the same way as temporary teachers count their years towards panel rights; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8930/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The teacher exchange scheme is designed to facilitate permanent primary teachers to temporarily exchange their posts for educational purposes. The minimum period for which an exchange may occur is one year and the maximum is five years. A teacher's seniority in his/her own school shall not be affected by participating in a teacher exchange scheme.

The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of all surplus permanent and CID holding teachers to other schools that have vacancies. The redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers is key to my 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 redeployment arrangements are published annually in the staffing circular which is placed on the Department website. The redeployment arrangements for the 2015/16 school year are set out in Circular 0005/2015 which is available on the website. 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. My Department updates the progress of the panels on the website on a regular basis.

Given that the permanent teachers participating in the teacher exchange scheme do so for a minimum period of one school year and are not surplus teachers in a school such teachers do not come within the redeployment arrangements.