Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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498. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide 2024/2025 teacher supply and vacancy data at primary level, by local authority area (including fixed-term, permanent, and substitution coverage rates); the measures taken to improve recruitment and retention in high-vacancy regions; if she will align any class-size reductions in Budget 2026 with a phased, supply-led rollout and publish an options paper on targeted incentives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51883/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This Government is 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, especially in urban areas. While most teaching positions are filled, some schools face acute recruitment challenges.

The recruitment and appointment of primary teachers for teaching positions is managed by over 3,000 individual school authorities, independently of the Department.

While my Department does not collate the data requested for primary schools by local authority area, there are data available by county from an analysis of the teacher payroll.

Nationally, the number of unused allocated primary teaching posts according to the most recent analysis in March was 1,228 (3.1%). This analysis has been taken at a point in time of the relevant data, and schools continually recruit throughout the year.

The following table provides the number of allocated and unused teaching posts in primary schools. These data also provide the number of permanent contracts, and fixed term contracts for individual teachers as of March 2025. The table also provides data on the number of substitutes employed in primary schools in each county. There were 16,910 individual substitute teachers employed in primary schools across Ireland during the 2024/25 school year with some substitutes working in more than one county. Please note that the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) allocated posts is provided, while the number of individuals who held permanent or fixed term contracts is provided.

Table: Teacher Supply Data

To support schools to address teacher supply 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.
• 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.
• The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard at less than 3%, and is consistent with previous years.

• introducing the PME fee refund scheme,
• encouraging retired teachers to work as substitute teachers,
• facilitating those teachers on career break, or job-sharing to work as substitute teachers,
• developing, with the support of the Irish Primary Principals Network, educationposts.ie, a service to support schools’ recruitment efforts,
• promoting the teaching profession through the Teaching Transforms campaign, and
• 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. These findings will be incorporated into a workforce strategy for the school workforce.