Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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259. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will detail the efforts her Department are making to reduce incidents whereby non-teaching staff are required to teach students; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7789/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authorities, subject to procedures agreed upon under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012).

As set out in the relevant Department circulars, if no registered teacher can be found, the employer may employ an unregistered person, in a short-term capacity, in accordance with the limited exceptions provided for under the Education Act, 1998 (Unregistered Persons) Regulations 2014.

The employer should continue to make all reasonable efforts to employ a registered teacher in the position. Where an appropriately qualified registered teacher or a teacher registered under any regulation can be employed, the school should immediately terminate the contract of the unregistered person.

My Department is implementing a range of measures to support the supply of teachers to fill short-term vacancies, including:

- a range of special, temporary arrangements introduced by HEIs to create greater capacity for student teachers to provide substitute cover;

- adjustment of the provision of continuing professional development (CPD) to reduce the need for substitution and to provide additional personnel to support schools;

- increasing the additional hours that post-primary teachers can teach each term from 20 to 35 for the remainder of the 2022/23 school year;

- launching a communications campaign to encourage retired teachers to take up short-term substitute positions and to enable them to teach for up to 50 days in each of the calendar years 2021 to 2023 without, in most cases, a reduction in their pension;

- introduction, by the Teaching Council, of regulations to allow the registration of 3rd and 4th-year undergraduate student teachers, with over 2,600 student teachers now registered;

- providing for the allocation of a significant number of additional posts to primary substitute teacher supply panels in areas where significant challenges in sourcing substitution continue, which brings the total to 610 posts on 151 panels covering more than 2,840 schools;

- allowing job-sharing teachers to be employed to work in a substitute capacity, during the period they are rostered off duty, in their own or in other schools on a temporary basis for the 2022/23 school year; and

- suspending, on a temporary basis, the limits on substitute work that apply to teachers on career breaks for the 2022/23 school year.

Despite the positive impact of these important actions, work remains to be done to address teacher supply challenges, particularly to ensure the availability of sufficient numbers of substitute teachers. My Department continues to work intensively with all stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.