Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For the record, we have 1 million students, 4,000 schools and more than 100,000 staff in place, the highest number of staff ever in place. We have the lowest pupil-teacher ratio that we have ever had at a ratio of 23:1. In each of the 3,000 special classes, there are six pupils, one teacher and two SNAs, which is a very low ratio, as is right and correct. We have never had as many staff in the system as we have currently.

With specific regard to this application for teachers who do their training abroad, I must be clear that for them to be fully qualified, it is always the case, including here, that they must do a further year of induction. They are not fully qualified until they have done a year of induction. Heretofore, they had to do that year of induction in the country in which they did their training. There was a derogation during Covid but that has now expired. The Teaching Council is currently looking at that to see what potential there is going forward. However, teachers are not qualified until they have completed their year of induction.

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