Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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189. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will waive fees for the master's course to teach in secondary school in the immediate as part of Budget 2025, given the teacher shortage; and her views on whether this should be done as part of a process to make all education free. [38693/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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It is acknowledged that there are challenges around the availability of teachers at present and the Department’s ongoing approach is to continue to develop innovative measures to improve the availability of teachers.

Budget 2024 contained a range of measures that demonstrated the Department’s commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions taken in recent years to address teacher supply, a number of specific, targeted measures will be introduced with the new funding provided, including a PME fee refund scheme, which was launched in September 2024.

This PME fee refund scheme has been 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.

This scheme will assist schools that experience recruitment challenges and recognises the costs that PME students incur when completing their initial teacher education. The aim of the incentive is to encourage more suitable candidates to consider a career in teaching and to encourage NQTs with PMEs to take up teaching roles in Ireland after graduating.

Further details of this scheme can accessed here: .

There are also a number of student grants and other financial supports available to students who are registered in the four State-funded HEIs. More information on this can be found here: .

Decisions regarding whether third level education should be free to all students are not a matter for my Department.