Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

167. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to set up a teacher supply panel for the primary schools for the area of north-west Connemara, County Galway in view of the fact that the only other teacher supply panel in Connemara for substitute teachers is based in the Gaeltacht and services schools teaching through Irish while all schools in north-west Connemara operate through the medium of English; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22995/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Roadmap for the Full Return to School provides for comprehensive supports across a range of areas to allow for the safe reopening of schools.

Among the supports provided is the extension of the Substitute Teacher Supply Panel. The scheme has been expanded from a pilot scheme consisting of 6 base schools to over 100 base schools, providing substitute cover to over 2,000 schools across the country.

The base schools were firstly identified in conjunction with the INTO and primary management bodies. The INTO and management bodies made contact with these schools with a view to being a base for that location.

In forming the Supply Panel clusters, my Department's GIS system identified the receiving schools based on distance from the base school. Teaching posts were allocated to each Supply Panel cluster based on the number of permanent teaching positions in the schools in the cluster and the distance to the base school.

A Supply Panel cluster has been established in Scoil Mhuire, Clifden which services schools in the area referred to by the Deputy.