Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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956. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if newly qualified teachers are entitled to payment during the school holidays if they are covering a teacher on sick leave indefinitely and employed on a year-by-year basis. [46484/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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957. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if teachers who are employed on a year-by-year basis, or a fixed contract, to cover a teacher who is on sick leave have to sign on for jobseeker's benefit during the holidays. [46485/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 956 and 957 together.

By way of background, it might be helpful if I explained the role my department plays in terms of the payroll service it provides to schools. My department provides a payroll service to over 3,700 schools. The school and its Board of Management remain the employer of teachers.

There are a variety of teaching employment types within these schools such as permanent whole-time, fixed term contracts, contracts of indefinite duration and casual substitution work. This last category is where schools employ teachers on a casual basis to fill short-term vacancies resulting from absences of their whole-time time colleagues due to for example sick-leave or attendance at in-career development courses.

It is expected that a teacher will be registered with the Teaching Council for the sector they are teaching in i.e. registered as a primary or post primary school teacher. There is no distinction made in terms of whether a teacher is newly qualified or otherwise in relation to payment over school closures. Payment over a school closure is determined by the nature of the post they have undertaken in a school.

The school year runs from the 1st September to 31st August the following year. Teachers are usually given contracts by the school from the 1st September to the following 31st August. Schools can continue to make appointments to teaching positions over the course of the school year.

Except for the positions where a teacher is working in a substitute capacity, teachers are paid for the 365 days of a school year which includes payment while a school is closed at Halloween, Christmas, February mid-term, Easter and Summer. Teachers who work in a substitute capacity are paid for the days they work and are eligible to apply for job-seekers benefit from the Department of Social Protection when the school is closed and they are not working in other employment. The payment for substitute work is paid at a higher rate of pay to allow for possibly a teacher is not working while the school is closed.

Schools will continue to make appointments over the course of the year. Where a primary school makes an appointment after the first working day in November, a teacher will be paid up to the 30th June the following year. Payment will include school closures except for the summer holidays. Should the teacher return to school in September as a post holder (not working in a substitute capacity) and they work up to the day before the anniversary of their appointment date, payment for the summer holidays will be retrospectively paid. For e.g. a primary school teacher appointed on the 6th November 2024 will be paid from the 6th November to the 30th June 2025. If the teacher returns to work on 1st September 2025 as a post holder and works up until 5th November 2025, payment for Summer 2025 will be retrospectively paid.