School Staff
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-24
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Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I thank the Minister very much for her detailed response. I am glad she brought up the ongoing engagement with the TUI because the motion passed at the 2022 congress instructed the executive to negotiate with the Department of education and other employers to establish a national voluntary redeployment panel. It is good to see that there has been correspondence on that. It now looks like the Minister is still waiting for the TUI to engage with the other stakeholders. That is very important, especially at this time of year. Will the Minister engage with the unions on this proposal as a matter of urgency and try to get the TUI to engage with the other bodies?
The Minister mentioned that there are 75,000 teachers. We all recognise the wonderful work they do. They are being supported by the Department. The role they play is very important too. The feedback we are getting from the members is that just over 90% of them would be interested in a scheme like this. In response to the question of whether a guarantee of continued job permanency would be a requirement for a teacher to consider seeking relocation or redeployment, 94.4% of the respondents answered "Yes". There is an appetite there and we need to engage with the unions and ask them to speed up this issue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-24