John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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188. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to free up teaching principals from classroom duties; if he will facilitate substitute cover for one day per week to facilitate this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28537/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that Budget 2016 made provision for some 2,260 additional teaching posts for our primary and post primary schools for the current school year. These posts provided for an improvement in the staffing schedules at primary and post primary levels, enhanced the leadership and management roles of deputy principals at post-primary level by reducing their teaching time, improved the scheme of release time for principal teachers at primary level and provided additional resource posts to meet special education needs.

Circular 12/2016, which is available on the Department website, outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching principal. Under the current arrangements the number of days that principal teachers may take as release time in each school year ranges between 15 and 25 days depending on the size of the school.

Any further enhancements to the Principal Release Time Scheme, will have to be considered in the context of the budgetary process.