§ Lord Bleaseasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Department of Education for Northern Ireland has sought to promote suitable consultations and/or negotiations with teacher representative bodies about redeployment procedures with a view to the alleviation of compulsory redundancies; if so, at what stage have these consultations or negotiations reached.
The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (The Earl of Gowrie)No formal consultations have taken place with teacher representative bodies about redeployment procedures. However, the General Committee of the Teachers Negotiating Machinery has established a sub-committee to consider, among other things, the problems associated with teacher redeployment. The sub-committee has teacher and management representatives. Its views will he passed to the Department of Education through the General Committee.
The department also intends to discuss with teacher organisations implications of the document Schools and Demographic Trends for the teaching profession. These discussions will include teacher redeployment.