Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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444. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teachers who are registered on the teacher supply panel; the number currently on the panel who have not been assigned to a school; the number of panellists by county; and the number of vacancies by county in primary and second-level schools. [50238/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As part of the COVID-19 supports provided to schools in 2020, additional funding of €41.2 million was allocated to provide primary schools with substitute staff.

This funding allowed for the expansion of the Substitute Teacher Supply Panel from a pilot scheme consisting of 6 base schools to 132 Substitute Teacher Supply Panels nationwide, with almost 380 newly appointed Supply Panel teachers employed, providing substitute cover to over 2,500 schools across the country. The posts are allocated to the base schools in the cluster and teachers are employed by those schools.

The scheme was further expanded in the 2021/22 school year and currently there are 151 Supply Panel clusters, with 610 posts allocated to the scheme, providing substitute cover in 2,843 schools. The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill the Supply Panel teaching posts is a matter for the individual base schools.

The number of supply panel posts per county is attached.