Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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451. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applicants who applied for redeployment through GRETB; the number of successful applicants in the past three years; her plans to widen the scope for transfers between education and training boards in different counties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28272/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers to other schools where vacancies exist. The redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers is key to the Department's ability to manage within its payroll budget and ceiling on teacher numbers.

A voluntary redeployment scheme has operated on a pilot basis in specific regions in recent years.Permanent teachers employed in these regions were given an opportunity to volunteer for a transfer to other areas if such a transfer would free up a vacancy that would facilitate the redeployment of a surplus permanent teacher in the region.

In the past 3 years, counties Galway and Roscommon were included in the pilot voluntary redeployment scheme. 18 teachers from GRETB applied for redeployment and 1 of the applicants was redeployed under this scheme.

There are currently no plans to introduce a separate voluntary redeployment scheme or to widen the scope for transfers between the Education and Training Boards.

Separately, each of the 16 ETB Schemes operate their own internal teacher transfer schemes where teachers can apply to move within the ETB Scheme.

The criteria for the allocation of teachers to post-primary schools for the 2020/21 school year, including the redeployment arrangements, are available on my Department's website.