Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government.

Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions I have taken in recent years to address teacher supply, a number of specific, targeted measures will be introduced with the new funding provided.

• A professional masters’ of education (PME) incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers graduating in 2024. Those newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to some conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000.
• Additionally, there will be an expansion in the number of upskilling programmes available. These programmes will increase the number of teachers who are qualified to teach in-demand subjects and reduce the level of out-of-field teaching. These new upskilling programmes in Irish, French, politics & society, and computer science will be in addition to existing upskilling programmes in maths, physics and Spanish.
• Also, an additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024/25 school year.

These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures that I have introduced in recent times, including:

• At primary level, I approved 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year (2023/24 and 2024/25).
• Earlier this year, I met with the primary teacher initial education providers on continuing existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, while either on placement or in a substitute capacity. In 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers. This number is expected to be exceeded in the current school year.
• Continuing the operation of primary substitute teacher supply panels in 2023/24, with 590 teaching posts allocated to 166 panels covering nearly 2,900 schools.
• Encouraging retired teachers to provide substitute cover. A communications campaign ran in early 2023. This has resulted in an increase in the number of teaching days provided by retired teachers by 49%, an increase of over 17,000 days between the 2021/22 school year, and the 2022/23 school year.
• Restrictions on job-sharing teachers from working as substitutes have been reduced. These teachers may be employed to work as substitutes during the period they are rostered off duty and limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career breaks have also been suspended.
• Post-primary teachers can provide up to 35 additional hours of substitute cover per term in the subject they are qualified to teach.

The teacher allocation ratio in primary schools is now at the lowest ever seen at primary level. The average student-per-teacher ratio in primary schools reduced by 10% between 2017 and 2023.

My Department also provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

• In March 2022, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme.
• This expansion added an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million.
• While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, we also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past four budgets, my Department has secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard.
• My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage.
• To support this work my Department has invited the OECD Strength Through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies Project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland, this is currently ongoing and the OECD team estimate that the review will be complete in Q2 of 2024. This review will provide an independent expert opinion on the current resource allocation model for the DEIS programme and, drawing on international examples, inform a policy approach for an equitable distribution of supplementary resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage attending all schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS.
  
  The Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on the educational needs profile of each school.
• Schools are frontloaded with ring-fenced SET resources for the purpose of supporting pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for pupils who require such support in their schools based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.
• It is a matter for schools to deploy SET resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework.
• Once the department allocates SET hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board of management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs.
• SET hours should only be used for their intended purpose to support pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need.
• The Department continues to engage with the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education (NABMSE) since August with a view to ensuring that special schools are supported with a range of measures and flexibility to address teacher supply challenges which are particularly acute in their settings. The Department provided a number of support options to NABMSE to circulate to their member schools as well as responding directly to special schools who made contact.

Teaching is an attractive career choice.

• CAO first preference choices for post-primary teaching increased this year by 14%, in addition to a 9% increase in 2022.
• Starting pay for Primary teachers is over €41,000 and for post-primary teachers over €42,000 since October under the extension to Building Momentum.
• Over 3,700 newly qualified teachers have registered with the Teaching Council in 2023, with over 120,000 now on the Teaching Council register.

While schools in certain locations are experiencing challenges in both recruiting teachers and obtaining substitute teachers, the vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard, and is consistent with previous years.

My Department continues to engage closely with school management bodies, teacher unions and other education stakeholders to develop further, innovative measures to address teacher supply issues.