Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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173. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her Department's plans to tackle the shortage of teachers in primary and post-primary schools; her plans to incentivise the return of teachers from abroad; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20562/23]

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

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.

The Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers, including:

• 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 of 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.
• 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. A communications campaign has also been launched to encourage retired teachers to take up short-term substitute positions.
• For the 2022/23 school year, job-sharing teachers may be employed to work as substitutes during the period they are rostered off duty and the limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career break have been suspended.

• 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 small number of locations for the 2023/24 school year.
• The Department provided details of the staffing arrangements for the 2023/24 school year to 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 complete induction (Droichead) in Ireland. Teachers must apply no later than 1 February 2024 to be eligible. This measure seeks to enhance the supply of NQTs available to schools and is particularly relevant for Irish teachers who have studied and qualified abroad and who may wish to return to the Irish education sector.
• As provided for in Section 4 of Circular 10/01, and subject to certain criteria, primary teachers are eligible to apply for the award of incremental credit in respect of teaching service given outside the Republic of Ireland.
• Following on from the Department’s Action Plan on Teacher Supply, the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) has developed a portal for the recruitment of teachers to long-term teaching positions. The portal will facilitate the matching of demand and supply and provide an efficient and user-friendly recruitment process for both schools and teachers, including teachers working abroad who wish to apply for posts here. It is anticipated that the portal will be available in the coming period.