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.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for individual school authorities. In that regard, there are more than 3,700 individual employers (boards of management of primary schools and post-primary schools, as well as ETBs).

Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system.

A professional masters’ of education 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. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025.

An additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024/25 school year. This is in recognition that school leaders play a key role in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.

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).
• Ensuring initial teacher education providers created existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while 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. This scheme provides substitute cover for teachers employed in primary schools who are absent on short-term leave.
• Encouraging retired teachers to provide substitute cover. A communications campaign ran in early 2023 resulting in an increase in the number of teaching days provided by retired teachers of 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 and those on a career break from working as substitutes have been reduced.

Additionally in the area of Special Education, the Department recognises the importance of providing well-timed and appropriate support to pupils with identified learning needs.

• The Special Education Teaching 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 front loaded 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 management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs. Special Education Teaching Hours should only be used for their intended purpose to support pupils with an identified and recorded specialeducation learning need.

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.

Teaching is an attractive career choice; starting pay for primary teachers is over €41,000 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. 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 education stakeholders to develop further, innovative measures to address teacher supply issues.