Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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792. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of qualified teachers on panels for both primary and secondary schools; the number of teachers graduating this year who have no post served in September 2015; the number of teachers each year since 2011 that her Department has taken on; on the basis of demographics for the next three years, the number of teachers that will be required; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28828/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Teacher allocations to all schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department website.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24(3) of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). The deployment of teaching staff in the school, the range of subjects offered and ultimately the quality of teaching and learning are in the first instance a matter for the school management authorities.

The Statistics Section of my Department's website contains extensive data relating to schools at primary and post-primary level, including teacher numbers. The most recent published information relates to the 2014/15 school year.

240 surplus permanent/CID holding teachers were redeployed through the primary redeployment panels for the 2015/16 school year. Over 2,000 fixed term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers were placed on the supplementary redeployment panels at primary level. At post primary level 86 post primary teachers were redeployed for the 2015/16 school year including those redeployed under a voluntary pilot scheme in Munster.

After the redeployment process has transacted, each school is permitted to fill any remaining vacancies through open recruitment. This is managed and organised at individual school level.

The policy of my Department is to ensure, as far as possible, that the Managerial Authorities of schools give priority to unemployed registered teachers who are fully qualified when filling vacant teaching posts. My Department has issued a number of Circulars addressing this issue in recent years.

Information on the number of teachers who are graduating in 2015 who will have no post in September 2015 is not available in my Department.

We have a growing population of young people in this country and despite the difficult financial circumstances we face as a country, we prioritised education so that the number of teachers we have in the system has also grown in order to protect pupil teacher ratios. There were a thousand more teachers employed in schools around the country in the last school year, than there was the year before. There will be a further increase of circa 1,300 teachers in the current school year. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources.

My focus in Budget 2015 was on obtaining the additional funding that was necessary to provide for demographic growth. The last Budget included an increase in spending on education for the first time in recent years, amounting to additional funding of €60m during 2015. This funding will be used to provide 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs for our schools, as well as to fund prioritised reforms, such as implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy, reform of junior cycle, and the introduction of education focussed pre-school inspections. The improvements in the Primary Staffing Schedule for small schools which I announced in February last are the only changes that I will be making to the staffing arrangements for schools for the 2015/16 school year.

While there has been a moratorium on recruitment across other sectors in the public service, this has not applied to teaching and shows the commitment this Government has to educating our future generations. The main priority for any additional resources for the foreseeable future will be to cater for the continuing increase in demographics at all levels in the education system. I am determined that education should be prioritised for investment as our economy recovers and I will be seeking to agree a set of priorities for such increased investment into the future.

The challenge for all schools is to ensure that they utilise their allocated resources to best effect to maximise teaching and learning outcomes.