Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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47. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the issues facing schools regarding supply of teachers to date; and the way in which he plans to fill the 1,280 teaching jobs announced in budget 2018. [44949/17]

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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The question concerns the current supply of teachers in primary schools and the Minister's plans to fill the 1,280 teaching jobs that he announced recently.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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For clarification, those jobs are at both primary and second level. I am pleased that I have been in a position to significantly expand the recruitment of teachers. Some 2,300 new teachers were recruited in 2016-2017 and 2,900 will be recruited in 2017-2018. That figure of 2,900 is 21% more than the number announced in budget 2017. All of the 2016-2017 posts have been successfully filled and the process for filling the additional posts in the current year is almost complete. We are successfully filling the posts that we are making available.

Overall, the number of graduates emerging from initial teacher training at primary level is approximately 1,750 and that at second level is approximately 1,500 per annum. I am aware of certain reported difficulties in recruiting substitute teachers at primary level and in a number of particular subjects at second level. There are difficulties in developing a reliable model of teacher supply at second level, which was recognised in the work of the Teaching Council. This is because teaching is competing with many other sectors for graduates in areas such as maths, science, and Irish.

I have taken some immediate initiatives to ease some of these pressures. Some have been in respect of retiring teachers who remain eligible for periods of more than five consecutive days if they continue to be registered with the Teaching Council. I have also increased the limits for employment while on career break at post-primary level to a maximum of 300 hours in a school year and to a maximum of 90 days in a school year at primary level. The matter of the employment of bachelor of education and professional master of education students in limited circumstances on a short-term basis is still under consideration.

I have also taken particular subject area initiatives such as increasing the number of students admitted to St, Angela's, Sligo, to follow the home economics programme, which is one of the areas of tightness, with further expansion in future years. As part of the policy on Gaeltacht education, I have made funding available for the provision of two additional posts to the máistir gairmiúil san oideachas - professional master of education programme - in NUI Galway.

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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The extra teachers are extremely welcome. I want to give an example from recent experience. I chair the board of management of a primary school. Due to career breaks and maternity leave, we have had quite a number of vacancies to fill. We spent a full day last July, another half day in August and another period two weeks ago interviewing, yet we still have a substitute maternity leave post that we cannot fill. We have had to resort to unqualified teachers. As the Minister knows, they can only work for five days at a time. This means that the class in question will be getting a different teacher every five days. I totally understand that we do not want unqualified individuals teaching in schools because it would have a disastrous effect on the quality of teaching. However, this is an exceptional circumstance and, no matter what the rule or regulation is, there has to be some space for particular circumstances that arise. We can certainly document our efforts to get somebody, which have been unsuccessful to date. I ask for the Minister to allow for some space to manoeuvre in these situations.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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There is no doubt that recruiting 5,000 teachers over two years puts some pressure on the system. We are successfully filling those posts, however, and are making provision to ease the pressure where pinch points occur. I am also sitting down with my Department to look at other potential initiatives, particularly in some of the areas, such as STEM and languages, in which we are experiencing pinch points. We are very definitely competing with other growing sectors that are demanding maths, physics, STEM and so on. I am looking to see if we can take targeted initiatives to attract more of such graduates into teaching.

We will have 1,750 teachers qualifying at primary level this year. The recruitment plan next year is for 650.

5 o’clock

There will be considerably more headroom for recruitment next year than was there was in September last.

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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There is a particular difficulty at primary level. Irish teachers are in high demand in other countries and they now have opportunities to work abroad, particularly in the Middle East where salaries are higher. A significant number of teachers are away in any given year. I do not believe it should be the responsibility of the voluntary management boards to make a decision in this area. There is need for a conversation between the Department and the unions on the maximum number, proportionate to the number of teachers in a school, that can be on a career break in any given year. Some schools have brought in their own quotas but I am not sure if that is the correct way to go. This exodus needs to be addressed because it has an unsettling effect on the children, whose interests are primary.

Another issue is Garda vetting, which can sometimes be complicated for teachers. It would be helpful if it could be simplified in some way.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is right that under the current system it is up to the local authority to decide on employment policies of that nature. I will ask the Department to look at the issue. In regard to Garda vetting, to be fair to the various management bodies they have made a big effort to streamline the process. The Teaching Council has also done a lot of work to try to streamline it. Of late, I have not been receiving the level of complaints I was receiving previously. I hope it is working itself through.

On the issue of salaries, we have made significant progress in closing the gap that existed. Talks in this area are ongoing. Hopefully, across all of these initiatives we can ease the pinch points that the Deputy points to.