Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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422. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department is aware of the costs associated with a process (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44496/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As provided for under the rules of the relevant pension scheme, in general, public sector employees including teaching and other pensionable employees in the education sector, may apply for retirement pension benefit on medical grounds. In the case of employees on the payroll of my Department, the application process involves a medical assessment by Medmark, the current Occupational Health Service (OHS). This establishes if the person is medically incapacitated and, if so, that the medical issue is likely to be permanent.

The ill health retirement process provides the pension scheme member with an initial assessment from the Occupational Health service provider and there is no cost involved for this initial assessment to the applicant.

In the event the member is deemed not suitable for ill health retirement, the member has the right to appeal this decision. In this instance the member is referred by the OHS to an independent medical practitioner. The OHS have selected a number of independent registered medical practitioners, who are suitably qualified to assess medical fitness for work, to review these appeals. The cost of the medical assessment element of any appeal must be borne by the member. In the event that the appeal is successful the cost will be refunded to the member.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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423. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of the number of SNAs employed in Meath in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form. [44518/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Special needs assistants (SNAs) play a central role in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs into mainstream education, special classes and special schools ensuring that these students can access education to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs including the allocation of SNAs. Allocations are provided to schools on the basis of the school's overall profile of need. As a result, the number of students supported by SNAs varies from school to school.

When the NCSE allocates a SNA post, the board of management as the employer, is responsible for filling the vacancy. The decision on whether to employ a full time SNA to fill a full-time post or to employ an equivalent number of part time SNAs rests with the employer. Therefore data on the number of SNAs employed is held at a local level.

The NCSE publish their allocation of SNA posts annually on their website. For ease of reference these allocations are broken down by county and school type. This data is available at the following link: www.ncse.ie/set-hours-and-sna-allocations

We have been steadily building on the number of SNAs in our education system. At the end of the 2023 school year there was just over 21,000 SNAs in schools, double the number there were in 2011. Budget 2024 provided for 1,216 new SNA posts and Budget 2025 for a further 1,600.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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424. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of the number of vacant teaching posts in Meath in the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, in tabular form. [44519/24]

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 for teaching positions is managed by individual school authorities. There are over 3,700 individual school authorities, responsible for this process, including boards of management at primary and post-primary schools, as well as Education and Training Boards (ETBs).

While my Department does not collect data on the recruitment by individual employers, an analysis of the Department’s payroll system is being undertaken to generate statistics on the teacher workforce. This will include statistics on the full time equivalents (FTE), permanent and fixed contracts, with breakdowns possible by county. These data are expected to be available in the near future.

Schools that experience recruitment challenges can avail of a number of supports that my department has implemented including:

• providing for the provision of supply panels at primary level; for the 2024/25 school year, 591 substitute teacher supply posts have been allocated to 167 panels, covering 2,900 schools.
• enabling student teachers to substitute; over 3,700 student teachers were registered with the Teaching Council to substitute in June 2024, up from 2,700 that were registered in the previous school year.
• enabling newly qualified teachers (NQTs) employed in primary schools to complete the Droichead process while employed on a Supply Panel or Principal Release Time Post, increasing the attractiveness of these posts.
• increasing the pool of teachers available to undertake substitute work, through the continued suspension of the usual limits on career break and job-sharing schemes and the continuation of the teaching hours’ extension scheme in post-primary schools to 2024/25 school year.
• encouraging retired teachers to work as substitute teachers; in the 2023/24 school year, over 1,700 retired teachers provided substitute cover, an increase of 12% on the previous year.

• an increase of 20% in Initial Teacher Education graduates (student teachers) between 2018 and 2023, and a 30% increase in the number registered with the Teaching Council since 2017, and
• a 16.7% increase in the number of teaching posts allocated to post-primary, and an increase of 13.3% allocated to primary between 2017/18 and 2023/24.

• Budget 2025 included a bursary for student teachers to increase the number of qualified STEM (including science, maths, chemistry, physics, engineering) teachers in post-primary schools. The bursary, a €2k payment each year for the final two years of their undergraduate initial teacher education programme, is contingent on a commitment to complete a minimum 2 years post-qualification teaching service in a recognised post primary school.
• Budget 2024 also included the expansion of upskilling programmes, free to teachers, aimed at increasing the number of qualified teachers in high-demand subjects and reducing out-of-field teaching. New programmes in Irish, French, politics & society, and computer science will complement existing programmes in maths, physics, and Spanish. Trinity College Dublin will deliver the new Irish upskilling programme for post-primary.
• Budget 2025 continued funding for free upskilling courses for teachers in high-demand subject areas (Irish, French, Spanish, maths, computer science, physics, politics & society).
• Budget 2024 introduced a €2,000 bursary-style fee refund for teachers graduating with a Professional Master of Education (PME) in 2024. This payment, to be made in 2025, aims to encourage newly qualified primary and post-primary teachers to take up teaching roles. A circular issued in September from my department setting out the eligibility criteria.

• With 3,700 newly qualified teachers registered with the Teaching Council in 2024 and over 123,000 now on the register.
• Analysis of CAO applications spanning from 2017 to 2024 indicates a sustained and robust demand for undergraduate teaching programmes. On average, 6% of first preference applications during the period from 2017 to 2024 were for either primary or post-primary teaching programmes.
• The new pay deal will mean that teachers’ starting salary will increase to €46,000 rising to a maximum of €85,000 per year which compares well internationally.