Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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449. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to increase Teagasc education staff at colleges such as Ballyhaise Agricultural College, County Cavan, in view of the increased demand for the green cert programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33726/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The delegated sanction arrangements for Teagasc permits them to fill vacancies through recruitment and/or promotion in designated grades up to and including Principal Officer or equivalent, subject to an overall Pay bill ceiling. The multi-annual pay ceiling is binding and it falls on Teagasc to deliver services within the agreed ceiling. This includes responding to emerging expenditure pressures without recourse to additional Exchequer allocations and involves commitment to ongoing reform and efficiency measures as appropriate.

The arrangements enable Teagasc to replace staff when they retire and to make 75 new permanent appointments, subject to compliance with the pay ceilings. The specific arrangements to allocate available staff resources to Teagasc research, advisory and/or education services are matters for Teagasc management to determine. I understand that a number of appointments have been made in the education area. While Teagasc must remain within its overall pay budget, the flexibility provided by the new arrangements will allow them to fill critical vacancies and to react faster when such vacancies arise in the future.

In addition to the above measure, my Department in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, approved the appointment of 70 education officers and 7 administrative staff on two year contracts to enable Teagasc dramatically increase enrolments for the Green Cert Programme. The allocation of those resources to the different agricultural colleges etc. is an internal operational matter for Teagasc and not my Department. I understand that most of the teachers have been recruited and are helping to deliver record numbers of Green Cert enrolments, which are forecasted to top 4,500 for the period 2014 to 2016.

My Department has asked Teagasc to explore other staffing measures, beyond further temporary recruitment, to ensure that any residual demand for the Green Cert can be accommodated within a realistic time-frame. My Department will continue to monitor the Green Cert situation in Teagasc closely.