Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This Government is fully committed to ensuring that every child has a positive school experience, with access to qualified and engaged teachers who are dedicated to supporting their learning.

Like many sectors, recruitment challenges exist in the education sector. To address teacher supply issues, my Department has implemented several measures that have led to:

• an increase of 20% in Initial Teacher Education graduates (student teachers) between 2018 and 2023, and
• a 30% increase in the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council since 2017.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers for teaching positions is managed by individual school authorities. There are over 3,000 individual primary school authorities, responsible for this process, including boards of management, as well as Education and Training Boards (ETBs).

Given that school authorities manage the recruitment process independently, my Department does not collect data on recruitment by individual employers.

I am committed to addressing teacher supply. I announced new teacher supply measures recently including to help teachers gain permanent roles more quickly. Measures introduced in recent budgets included a PME fee refund scheme which is in addition to more flexible substitution measures, promotion of the teaching profession as a career and workforce planning for teachers and SNAs, reflect the commitment to ongoing investment in the education system to address teacher supply.

The Department has been working on an analysis of the teacher workforce. The most recent data shows that there are over 79,000 qualified teachers employed in our schools across the country with over 43,000 at primary level including special schools. The analysis is a snapshot at a point in time of the relevant data and schools continually recruit throughout the year.

Teaching is an attractive career choice:

• with 1,846 newly qualified primary teachers registered with the Teaching Council in 2024.
• first preference data from the CAO published recently showed an increase in primary first preferences of 9%, and
• 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.

My Department frequently consults and engages closely with stakeholders on issues such as teacher supply through industrial relations forums, sectoral meetings, and direct discussions with teacher unions.

In addition to recently announced measures, I will continue to consider further measures to strengthen the teaching workforce and ensure that schools have the support needed to provide an excellent education for every student.