Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

334. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills following the request by the Government to encourage teachers who qualified outside the State to take up teaching posts available in Ireland, if she will consider giving compensation to those who went through additional training (details supplied) by upskilling in order to take up these positions at great personal cost; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9492/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In 2018, my Department established a Steering Group on Teacher Supply to facilitate multi-agency engagement and to lead on a coordinated programme of actions to support the supply of teachers. Arising from the work of this Group and its various substructures, the Teacher Supply Action Plan was published in November 2018.

The Action Plan called for the development of upskilling programmes in targeted subject areas for existing teachers, and following a request from my Department, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) issued a funding call to initial teacher education (ITE) providers for upskilling programmes in mathematics, physics and Spanish in late 2019. These were identified by the Steering Group as among the most challenging subjects in terms of teacher recruitment. Following the successful completion of the funding call, these programmes commenced in January 2021.

Funding for these programmes was put in place following a competitive call to all initial teacher education providers for proposals. It is intended to commence an upskilling programme in Irish in 2023/24 and consideration will be given to programmes in other subjects. The allocation of funding for any future programmes will be dependent on a competitive process for potential providers.

There is no provision to reimburse teachers for the costs of initial teacher education programmes, such as the programme referred to by the Deputy.