TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey has officially retired from his teaching post, 22 years after taking his Dail seat, it emerged last night.

The minister's move comes as Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe considers calling time on teacher-TDs who hold on to their classroom jobs indefinitely.

Minister O'Keeffe may put a time limit, of possibly 10 years, on how long they can keep open the option of returning to their former teaching post.

Many teachers currently turn to politics safe in the knowledge that if their political career ends they can walk back into their old job.

While on what is known as Oireachtas leave, they retain their full salary and allowances -- and the cost of their replacement is deducted from this.

The TD or senator is entitled to keep the remainder of the salary, and some do, although a number of members of the Oireachtas have chosen not to accept any outstanding balance.

The arrangements could mean that a TD was paid €60,000 a year before being elected to the Dail, is replaced by a substitute on €50,000, and can pocket the outstanding €10,000 on top of their Oireachtas salary.

Teachers elected to the Houses of the Oireachtas also continue to clock up incremental credits and pension entitlements related to their teaching post.

The system results in permanent teaching posts being blocked off to other staff members, including the replacement who may be doing the job for years.

Some teacher TDs, including Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and independent TD Finian McGrath, have previously resigned from their former jobs.

However a number, including Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, elected in 1989, and Social Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin, elected in 1997, are still on the Department of Education books, although neither accepts any salary balance.

Minister Dempsey, who was elected in 1987, retained his teaching post in November according to the Department of Education.

But information compiled by the department in January now shows him to be "retired".

Discussions

The tradition of teacher-TDs holding on to their old jobs indefinitely has come under increasing fire in recent years.

When it was highlighted in November, the Department of Education said the policy would not change, but now Minister O'Keeffe has signalled a re-think.

Green Party TD Paul Gogarty has asked the minister about putting a 10-year limit -- typically two Dail terms -- on the Oireachtas leave.

Minister O'Keeffe, a retired Cork Institute of Technology lecturer, has confirmed that he will "consider the matter and the proposal to limit the period of the approved leave of absence from teaching duty in the light of the outcome of discussions with the education partners in relation to teacher redeployment".

- Katherine Donnelly