Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There are two standard routes recognised by the Teaching Council to become a primary teacher:

• A four-year undergraduate Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) programme.
• A two-year post-graduate Professional Master of Education (PME) programme.

The undergraduate/B. Ed. model offers students who are beginning their tertiary education, and wish to pursue a career in teaching, an opportunity to acquire a teaching qualification. In the postgraduate/PME model, a teacher first obtains a qualification in one or more subjects (through an undergraduate degree), and then studies for a further period to gain the professional qualification in teaching.

There are four State-funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) providing primary initial teacher education (ITE). Each of these offers both a full time primary ITE undergraduate/B.Ed. and postgraduate/PME programme:

• DCU Institute of Education.
• Marino Institute of Education.
• Maynooth University (Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education)
• Mary Immaculate College

There is one private provider, Hibernia College, which provides postgraduate (PME) programmes only (primary and post-primary).

The number of students admitted to primary concurrent and consecutive programmes in State-funded HEIs is determined my Department, having regard to teacher supply and demand issues, and available resources.

Following engagement with the 4 State-funded HEIs providing primary initial teacher education, I also approved 610 additional places, with 320 of these approved for 2023, and the remaining 290 in 2024.

The new places are as follows:

• 90 additional places on the Bachelor of Education programme in 2023 and 2024, making a total of 1,090 each year.
• 30 additional places on the Bachelor of Education through the Medium of Irish in 2023, making a total of 60 in 2023.
• 200 additional places on the Professional Master of Education (Primary Teaching) programme in 2023 and 2024, making a total of 400 each year.

The number of approved places for the Professional Master of Education (PME) programme across the four State-funded HEIs for entry in this current academic year is as follows:

Approved places on Professional Master of Education (PME) programme State-funded HEIs	2023/2024
Dublin City University	120
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick	120
Marino Institute of Education	100
Maynooth University	60

In terms of overall enrolments on the ITE programmes, 2022/23 is the most recent year for which confirmed data is available. In that year there were some 4,700 students enrolled in primary across the State-funded sector.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There are 11 State-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) providing post-primary initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland.

These are:

• DCU Institute of Education
• Maynooth University
• Mary Immaculate College
• University College Dublin
• University of Galway
• University College Cork
• University of Limerick
• Trinity College Dublin
• Technological University of the Shannon
• Atlantic Technological University - which now includes Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and St Angela’s College, Sligo
• The National College of Art and Design

These institutions provide a range of concurrent and consecutive programmes.

At post-primary level, higher education institutions determine the level of places on their programmes in accordance with their own available resources and arrangements and so my Department does not hold data on the number of approved places for post-primary, in the way that it would for primary.

While no caps or targets on numbers are usually set for programmes, providers have been encouraged in recent years to develop programmes in a way that is mindful of system need. This has included the development of additional four-year concurrent programmes for subjects such as Irish and modern foreign languages.

In terms of overall enrolments on ITE programmes, 2022/23 is the most recent year for which confirmed data is available. In that year there were some 6,000 students enrolled on post-primary programmes across the State-funded sector, with some 1,800 of these enrolled on postgraduate programmes.