Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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93. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures she is taking to address the shortage of teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13892/23]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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125. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures she is taking to address the shortage of teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14160/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 125 together.

The recruitment of teachers is a priority area of action for the Department given the importance of ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have available to them qualified, engaged, and supportive teachers to support them in their learning.

My Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers. A number of measures have been implemented to support the supply of substitute teachers

These include:

- Additional primary substitute teacher supply panel posts have been provided in locations where significant challenges in sourcing substitution continue. This brings the total to 610 posts on 151 panels covering more than 2,840 schools, including the large majority of primary schools in Dublin.

- As a temporary measure post primary teachers can provide additional hours substitute cover in the subject they are qualified to teach. The number of additional hours that can be taught per term has been increased from 20 to 35 for the remainder of the 2022/23 school year.

- For 2022/23, higher education institutions have introduced flexibility in the delivery of initial teacher education programmes to allow student teachers to provide more substitute cover.

- The Teaching Council introduced regulations allowing for the registration of 3rd and 4th year undergraduate student teachers under registration Route 5 (Student Teachers).More than 2,700 student teachers have registered under route 5 to date. This initiative supports the employment of student teachers to cover substitutable vacancies.

- The Department has adjusted the provision of CPD by the teacher support services to reduce the need for substitution. In addition, the support services have released seconded personnel to provide substitute cover to schools.

- A waiver of abatement for retired teachers returning to teach for up to 50 days in each of the three calendar years, 2021 to 2023 inclusive has been agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

For 2022/23, job-sharing teachers may be employed to work in a substitute capacity during the period they are rostered off, in their own or in other schools, and the limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career break have also been suspended.

The Department provided details of the staffing arrangements for the 2023/24 school year to primary and post primary schools before the end of January. This will facilitate schools to begin recruitment for the 2023/24 school year earlier than in 2022.

Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who qualify outside Ireland may now complete induction (Droichead) in Ireland under a new measure implemented by the Teaching Council. This measure seeks to enhance the supply of NQTs available to schools.

Measures targeted at supporting the long term supply needs of the system have also been put in place

- At primary level, I recently approved 610 additional places on ITE programmes over the next two academic years (2023/24 and 2024/25).

- At post primary level, the Department has increased the number of places on teacher upskilling programmes in mathematics, Spanish and physics. The programmes are delivered outside of class time and are offered at no cost to the teacher. Approximately 170 places were provided in the first intake across the three programmes with an increase in places to over 300 in 2023.

- A new programme for post primary teachers to up-skill in Irish is planned for commencement in 2023/2024. The Department is also considering additional upskilling programmes in other priority subject areas.

- The Department introduced a scheme to allow post-primary schools to share teachers, the aim of which is to recruit teachers in high-demand subjects and give teachers a full-time teaching contract. It is expected that a pilot of the scheme will be introduced in a number of locations for the 2023/24 school year. An eLearning form of this scheme is also being explored.

In addition to the above measures, the Teaching Transforms campaign continues to promote the teaching profession and encourage students to follow a career in teaching. The campaign uses digital, radio and video media, and is supported by a dedicated webpage, www.gov.ie/teachingtransforms. I am very pleased to note that CAO first preference choices for post primary teaching have increased this year by 11%.

The Department meets on a regular basis with the school management bodies and the teacher unions on this very important issue and we will continue to work intensively with all stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.