Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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544. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide clarity on the current criteria and period a teacher must meet in order to be offered a permanent contract; if there are any plans to review or revise this process to ensure fair and timely access to permanency for qualified teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29446/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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At present, the primary method of obtaining permanent status for teachers is through the attainment of a Contract of Indefinite Duration (CID). Department Circulars 23/2015 (Primary Sector) and 24/2015 (Post-Primary Sector) set out the criteria for the award of a CID which, in general and subject to other qualifying criteria, requires the teacher to have a period of continuous employment in excess of two years with the same employer; all of such employment must have been in a post(s) funded by monies provided by the Oireachtas.

In the Primary Sector, eligible fixed-term/temporary and part-time teachers may also obtain appointment to a full-time permanent teaching post through the Supplementary Redeployment Panel, but only where those posts are not otherwise required to facilitate the redeployment of surplus permanent and CID holding teachers on the Main Redeployment Panel. The details of the Supplementary Redeployment Panel for the 25/26 School Year are set out in Department Circular 0090/2024.

I know that teachers experience challenges that were not so acute for previous generations, including casualisation within the teaching profession. That is why I have announced that to help teachers to gain permanent roles more quickly, we will develop a new agreement which will see teachers who have taught for one year and successfully interview for a viable post in that school the following year, immediately getting offered a permanent contract at the start of that year.

I hope that being able to gain a permanent contract a year earlier will help teachers in applying for mortgages and placing their careers on a more stable footing much sooner than before. While I hope this will be of significant benefit to younger teachers in particular, the new arrangements will apply to all teachers who satisfy the relevant criteria.

Officials of my Department will be engaging with the education partners to finalise the details of this new agreement, following which the details will be published by my Department.