Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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891. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to broaden the ability for more people to become teachers within Ireland, to address the teacher shortage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46012/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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892. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address the teacher shortages in secondary school level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46013/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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893. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address the teacher shortages in primary school level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46014/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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894. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address the teacher shortages in special education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46015/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 891, 892, 893 and 894 together.

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.

I am committed to addressing teacher supply and recently announced new teacher supply measures including a measure to assist teachers to gain permanent roles more quickly.

While the rate of unfilled teaching posts remains low, I recognise that as with other sectors, recruitment challenges exist in some schools. To support schools to address such issues, the Government has implemented several measures that have led to:

• an increase of 20% in Initial Teacher Education graduates (student teachers) between 2018 and 2023,
• a record number of registered teachers. The Teaching Council reported 94,928 teachers registered in the 2016/17 school year increasing to 122,743 teachers registered in 2023/24. Currently, the Teacher Council have reported that there are over 126,000 on the register representing a 33% increase in the number of teachers registered between 2017 and now, and
• the highest number of teachers employed. Recent data showed there were over 79,000 qualified teachers employed in Ireland with over 43,000 at primary level including special schools and over 36,000 in post-primary schools.

• Budget 2025 introduced a €2,000 bursary to increase the number of qualified STEM teachers in post-primary schools payable in the final two years of their undergraduate programme, in exchange for a two-year teaching commitment. Work has begun on the implementation of this initiative, which aims to increase the number of STEM teachers available to our schools.
• Budget 2024 introduced a PME fee refund scheme: a €2,000 bursary for teachers graduating with a Professional Master of Education (PME) in 2024, aimed at encouraging newly qualified teachers to take up roles in primary and post-primary schools. The Department has commenced the processing of applications, with many payments already issued.
• An expansion of upskilling programmes under Budget 2024 and continued in 2025 in high-demand subjects to reduce out-of-field teaching. Registered post-primary teachers, regardless of employment status, can avail of free upskilling programmes. These flexible programmes boost teachers’ employment opportunities while addressing subject-specific teacher shortages. Existing upskilling programmes are in high demand subjects such as maths, Spanish, Irish and physics. French, politics & society and computer science will commence this year. Over 980 post-primary teachers have already completed or are currently participating in such upskilling programmes.
• Additionally, the Teaching Council is to streamline the registration process for eligible teachers who qualified outside of Ireland, allowing them to apply for registration and complete their induction requirements within the country.

• Commencement of workforce planning for teachers. A new project, supported by UNESCO and the EU Commission, will create a strategic plan for managing Ireland’s teaching workforce. The project aims to consider the sustainability of the teaching profession in Ireland, with a focus on the factors that impact teacher supply. This two-year project will involve consultations with key stakeholders to develop recommendations.
• Development of the Teaching Transforms campaign, which promotes the teaching profession and encourage students to follow a career in teaching. The campaigns use digital, radio and video media, and have been developed to coincide with the CAO closing date and change of mind deadline in recent years, and
• Reducing restrictions on jobsharers and those on a career break from working as substitutes in primary and post-primary schools and enabling post-primary teachers to provide up to 35 additional hours of substitute cover per term under the Teaching Hours Extension Scheme have been extended to the next school year.

• The Special Education Teaching allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on the educational needs profile of each school.
• Schools are frontloaded with ring-fenced SET resources for the purpose of supporting pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for pupils who require such support in their schools based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.
• It is a matter for schools to deploy SET resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework. Once the Department allocates SET hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs.