Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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361. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teachers currently on temporary contracts, per county, in tabular form. [29890/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Please see attached the number of teachers on fixed term contracts in Primary and Post Primary schools (excludes ETB Post Primary). This data is point in time data taken from March 2024 Payroll. Figures may differ slightly throughout the school year. Please note this data does not include substitutes.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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362. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching principals, per county, in tabular form. [29891/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Attached are the details of the number of teaching principals, per county as requested.

My department provides time away from teaching duties in the classroom, known as principal release days, to assist principals to fulfil other aspects of their principal duties. Under these arrangements my department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching principal.

In Budget 2022, I ensured that each teaching principal with a minimum of one release day per week became a permanent feature in all our schools. Schools with one special class received 4 additional release days, while schools with 2 special classes have administrative principal status.

Schools may employ a substitute teacher for the day to facilitate the principal’s release day or alternatively, schools may cluster their release days with other schools to create a full-time fixed term post. The inclusion of principal release days in cluster posts allows for consistency in the teaching cover provided to schools.

Schools with Teaching Principals.

In the 2023/24 school year, there are 1558 schools with teaching principals out of a total of 3088 schools.