Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Currently, it is not possible to avail of primary teacher education in the Cork area. People have to leave Cork. There is a serious gap in provision. It is well worth exploring. The Minister of State is aware that the cost-of-living crisis is having a significant impact on students' choices. Previously, people in outlying areas might have moved to Cork, Limerick or Dublin but increasingly the cost of rent means that is less of a choice. For people in Cork who are from a low-income background, the option to take up primary teacher education is restricted because it is extremely difficult to move from Cork.

There are almost 600,000 people in Cork at this stage, including approximately 250,000 living in the metropolitan area. As such, a substantial number of people stand to benefit from a change.

University College Cork, UCC, has identified an opportunity here to provide a pipeline of capable new teachers to primary education and offer people a beneficial career. It has been working on developing a comprehensive professional master of education primary teaching course. The programme's design has reached an advanced stage and UCC expects to receive full approval for it next month. The course is intended to contribute to the broader goals of access and inclusion in education. By establishing a local programme, it will be possible to make teacher education more accessible to aspiring educators in Cork by eliminating barriers.

That proposal needs clearance from key stakeholders, in particular, the Department of Education. UCC is in an unusual position in that it has been identified by the Department of Education as a centre of excellence because of its role in training and the centre of education located in the university, which provides a great deal in post-primary education. However, there is currently no route for people from the area to access primary teacher education locally. This is a significant gap. I hope the Department of Education will respond positively to the proposal. While it would not deliver a result overnight, it would benefit the Cork area and the education system by creating more opportunities for people who could otherwise make different choices and decide to go down a different career route because of the lack of accessibility to a primary teacher education route in Cork.

I look forward to the Minister of State's response. I hope he will take this proposal on board.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for raising this important issue. Under section 38 of the Teaching Council Act, all initial teacher education programmes must be accredited by the Teaching Council for registration purposes. There are two standard routes recognised by the Teaching Council to become a primary teacher. These are a four-year undergraduate bachelor of education programme and a two-year postgraduate professional master of education programme. There are four State-funded higher education institutions, HEIs, providing primary initial teacher education, ITE, namely, Dublin City University, DCU, institute of education; Marino Institute of Education; Maynooth University; and Mary Immaculate College. Each of these offers both a full-time primary ITE undergraduate and a postgraduate programme. There is one private provider, Hibernia College, which provides postgraduate programmes only, primary and post primary.

The number of students admitted to primary, concurrent and consecutive programmes in State-funded HEls is determined by the Minister for Education, having regard to teacher supply and demand issues, and available resources. The work of the Department on matters related to teacher supply and demand continues. A technical report, Developing a Teacher Demand and Supply Model for lreland 2020-2038, which was published in 2019, is being updated and will inform proposals for future development in this area. The report is expected to be published in the autumn.

Recognising issues which have been experienced with teacher supply at primary level in recent years, the Minister for Education approved 610 additional places in primary programmes in the current State-funded providers. There were 90 additional places on the bachelor of education programme in 2023 and 2024, making a total of 1,090 each year; 30 additional places on the bachelor of education through the medium of Irish in 2023, making a total of 60 in 2023; and 200 additional places on the professional master of education primary teaching programme in 2023 and 2024, making a total of 400 each year.

On a final note, last year, the Minister for Education published an initial teacher education policy statement which presented a vision for policy and provision across the sector. One of the guiding principles of the policy is the continuation of the vision that initial teacher education will be led by a small number of university-led centres of teacher education excellence and that each of these will have a critical mass to provide for good teaching, research and international co-operation, with structures to ensure meaningful collaboration across education sectors. The policy statement also seeks to ensure that initial teacher education is strongly connected with and relevant to the needs of the education system so that, to the greatest extent possible, provision is aligned to the needs of the system. Future plans regarding provision at primary level will be informed by this also.

The Department, in its strategy and policy statement, clearly outlines the vision for provision across the sector and highlights the importance of not having stand-alone programmes but having a plugged-in and co-ordinated system.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I am used to generic responses to Topical Issue matters, and I am not blaming the Minister of State for this one, but the question I raised was to discuss the need to provide primary teacher training in Cork. The Minister of State's reply must add up to a few hundred words, none of which is "Cork" and none of which deals with the specific issue, namely, the location of teacher training, which is a significant part of the question I am raising. Nobody is suggesting that any of this would happen extraneous to the system but what is required is that the Department provide a favourable response to UCC in developing its plans in order that it can, with confidence, invest in what is required to secure the support of the Teaching Council and HEI accreditation. The university needs Department co-operation and support to deliver this.

The Department's statement indicates that it recognises "issues which have been experienced with teacher supply". That is a point well made but there are people in the Cork area who are not in a position to travel to the other universities or take up the Hibernia College courses because of their situation and the cost-of-living crisis they face.

According to the statement, "One of the guiding principles of the policy is the continuation of the vision that initial teacher education will be led by a small number of university-led centres of teacher education excellence". UCC is already recognised as a centre of excellence because of its very long record of work in this area. Some of the most well-known education academics in the country, for example, Áine Hyland, have worked at UCC's school of education, which is a well established and recognised centre of excellence. UCC would fit very much into the "small number of university-led centres of teacher education excellence ... [with] critical mass to provide for good teaching, research and international co-operation". The university meets all those criteria. I recognise that it needs to do all that is required with regard to the Teaching Council but it first needs a positive response from the Department and an indication from it that it will support the proposal. UCC can then invest the money required to ensure classes can be delivered in the next year or two.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. In answering on behalf of the Minister for Education, I apologise for not specifically referring to Cork, which was mentioned in the Deputy's question. In fairness, the answer outlined the rationale for the situation as it has existed to date. It sets out what will inform future plans for provision at primary level, as the Deputy highlighted. The key point is that the guiding principles are "that initial teacher education will be led by a small number of university-led centres of teacher education excellence and that each of these will have a critical mass to provide for good teaching, research and international co-operation, with structures to ensure meaningful collaboration across education sectors." I accept the Deputy's point about the difficulties potential students in Cork have with regard to travel. From its response, it is fair to say that the focus of the Department of Education is on having a structure that provides the best possible outcomes as regards what our education system needs, which evolves and changes over time.

The response is silent on whether there will be new and additional centres. The guiding principle is that there will be a small number of university-led centres. From my role in the Department of agriculture as Minister of State with responsibility for research and innovation, I know there is excellence in UCC. If the Department of Education is minded in the future to expand the number of centres, I imagine an institution like UCC would be well placed to be included in that. I note the Deputy is asking that if additional capacity is to be provided, the relevant institutions be given a nod in order to have an opportunity to invest and prepare for that. I presume that would be done on an open basis and that, as with any tender process, everyone would have a fair crack at it.

I am trying to get across the policy considerations of the Department.

10 o’clock

There is complexity around planning provision for initial primary teacher education. There are a lot of changes in our demographics and population and what we need in terms of primary teacher allocation in future will change from what we need now. We need to take into account the policy objective to ensure initial teacher education is strongly connected with, and relevant to, the needs of the education system. The publication of the next technical report with supply and demand data will be an important next step in this regard. This is where the next window is for the likes of UCC and others.