Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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4. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has carried out an assessment of the impact that the current teacher shortages are having on students, particularly in rural schools and DEIS areas; and the measures being taken to recruit and retain teachers. [59851/25]

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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There is a significant teacher shortage across Ireland. The unions have reported this over many years. Indeed, the situation is getting so bad that some schools are combining classes. Other schools are sending classes home. What analysis has the Minister done of the impact this is having in schools, particularly rural schools and DEIS schools? What is the Department doing to address the teacher shortage issue in this country?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This Government is fully committed to ensuring that every child has a positive school experience with access to qualified and engaged teachers who are completely dedicated and committed to supporting their learning. It is fair to say that we have a fantastic cohort of teachers who are committed to just that.

Over 97% of allocated teaching posts are filled and the number of unfilled allocated posts in DEIS or rural schools is comparable to that in all other schools. The data, which is based on our payroll, is not suggesting that there is a massive discrepancy between DEIS, rural schools or any other area. We have a rate of 97% of posts filled.

As with other sectors of the economy, recruitment challenges exist, which I acknowledge. In particular in certain parts of the country, most notably Dublin, there are still challenges. To address these, several targeted measures that have been implemented have led to an increase of 20% in initial teacher education graduates between 2018 and 2023, an increase of over 30% in the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council between 2017 and 2025, and an increase in allocated teaching posts of 11,752 between the 2018-19 and 2024-25 school years. There are more qualified teachers than ever. The increase in the number of allocated teaching posts has outpaced population increases, with over 79,000 teachers now employed in our schools. We are continuously looking at our data and how that matches what was reflected in the demand in our schools.

Teaching is a highly attractive profession. We still have strong demand for teacher education programmes, with 3,600 newly qualified teachers registered in 2025 alone. With the changes to the overall public sector pay agreement, I believe we have competitive salaries compared with other jurisdictions.

To address some of the challenges, and perhaps I will come to this in my second contribution, one of the first things that I said as Minister I wanted to do was determine how we make sure that we encourage more teachers into the system, how we keep the teachers we have and how we make sure we are supporting them in the best way possible.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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There are significant difficulties, particularly around certain subjects. From speaking to DEIS schools and rural schools, and indeed in Dublin as well, we need to focus on easing the difficulties of recruitment and retention in teaching. For example, why is it the case that if a teacher is permanent in Dublin and wants to move back to Mayo, that teacher has to give up their employment? Why is there not a scheme to redeploy - a proper functioning scheme for those people?

Why is Deputy McEntee, as the Minister for education, not trying to recruit teachers in the UAE and Australia? We need them. Despite what the Minister said, we need them. I speak to principals all the time. What is the Minister doing to recruit those teachers? I believe the Minister should be incentivising those teachers by outlining to them that we will recognise their service in the UAE and provide some increment benefit on the pay scale.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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One of the first things that I did, and this was directly in response to an ask from the unions, was make changes to ensure that teachers were able to gain permanent roles more quickly, after one year as opposed to two. That was one of the first asks that I had. It was one of the first things that I did and I have said that I will do more.

The Deputy mentioned the fact that there are certain subjects, in particular in post-primary schools, where there is a greater challenge in identifying teachers. I have provided more upskilling programmes. Where teachers currently are proficient in two subjects, they are now able to upskill free of charge in certain areas and in particular subjects where there are difficulties such as physics, chemistry or science subjects overall, maths, computing and other areas where we have identified a particular shortage. Likewise, reflecting the previous question about the Gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí, there is work under way to support teachers in making sure that they can upskill and become more proficient so that we do not have such a shortage. However, I appreciate that is a challenge and we are looking at lots of ways in which we can support teachers.

What I have said is that I will continue to look at possible ways and measures by which we can encourage more young people home. What is clear - I visited Australia for St. Patrick's Day this year and I met with many student teachers - is that many of them are coming home. Many of them are spending that time away and want to travel and to experience other jurisdictions, but they are also coming home because they want to come home and they want to teach in our schools.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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In fairness, the question I asked the Minister, in terms of the redeployment scheme, was why there is not a fair process for teachers who are living and working in Dublin and cannot afford, for example, to live in Dublin and want to move back to Mayo. The vacancies are there. Why is there not that scheme? Will the Minister engage with me in relation to that?

Has the Minister undertaken any analysis of the two-year professional master's in education? Is the additional year in that two-year programme been another barrier and will she consider reducing that back to one year?

In circumstances in which we have a teacher shortage, not enough is being done. We are not doing anything in terms of redeployment. The two-year master's, it seems, is here for good. There are teachers across the UAE who have been there five, ten or 15 years and if they return to Ireland, they will start on the lowest point of the pay scale. Those are key items that the Minister could take to address and it would go some way in alleviating the teacher shortage. The shortage is there and these are practical measures the Minister could take.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I think I have been clear as Minister that nothing is off the table but I have also shown that I am willing to take action on certain measures. Reducing the length of time for permanent contracts was the first one. Only in recent weeks, I made sure that people who have qualified abroad can have their skills recognised here, and I am doing it for a longer period and potentially putting that on a more permanent footing.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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The two-year master's and the redeployment.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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We need to look at all of those.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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These are the questions that the Minister will not answer.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy, please.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I think I have been very clear.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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No, the Minister has not answered the questions.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy either wants to hear the answer or does not.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Let the Minister answer the question.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy either wants to hear the answer or does not.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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The Minister is not answering it. That is the point.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I cannot do everything at once. What I have said clearly is that I am willing to look at every measure. In fact, I have met with the unions many times. My teams engage with them regularly on all of the issues that the Deputy has outlined but he is talking about giving teachers an opportunity to move from Dublin to other areas when it is clear that the shortages are in Dublin and some of the larger populated areas. We have to take every issue into consideration when we are making changes to any structure or resource that might be in place. We also have to look at whether the options that the Deputy is talking about would assist us in bringing more teachers into the system. I am keen on supporting the ones who are there and making sure that we have more people coming into the profession as well.