Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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805. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures being taken to address the shortage of secondary teachers in key subjects such as maths and science; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59033/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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.

There are over 79,000 qualified teachers employed in Ireland with over 36,000 in post-primary schools based on an analysis of March 2025 teacher payrolls. Over 98%, of post-primary allocated teaching posts are filled.

As with other sectors, acute recruitment challenges exist in some schools for teachers including in maths and science subjects. To address these 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, and over 30% increase in the number registered with the Teaching Council since 2017, and
• between 2018/19 and 2024/25, through record investment by Government, the number of teaching posts has increased by 11,752 with 5,886 (20.7%) post-primary allocated teaching posts.

• introduction in Budget 2025 of a €2,000 bursary for student teachers in STEM fields, 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 post-primary schools,
• expansion of upskilling programmes: registered post-primary teachers, regardless of employment status, can avail of free upskilling programmes, including in STEM subjects. These flexible programmes boost teachers’ employment opportunities while addressing subject-specific teacher shortages. New programmes in Irish, French, politics & society, and computer science commenced in 2025, with over 160 teachers registered on these programmes and complement existing programmes in maths, physics, and Spanish,
• continued promotion of the teaching profession through development of the Teaching Transforms campaign, which promotes the teaching profession and encourages students to follow a career in teaching. Promotion campaigns have been developed to coincide with the CAO closing date and change of mind deadline in recent years.

• 1,781 newly qualified post-primary teachers registered with the Teaching Council in 2025 and over 126,000 in total now on the register.
• An analysis of CAO applications spanning from 2017 to 2024 indicates a sustained and robust demand for undergraduate teaching programmes. On average, 6% of first preference applications during the period from 2017 to 2024 were for either primary or post-primary teaching programmes. First preference data from the CAO published for February this year showed increases in post-primary of 5%.
• Teacher’s pay has increased significantly in recent years with a new entrants’ current rate of €46,448 for post-primary teachers. Over 75% of new post-primary teachers are employed full-time and 93% of teachers with 5+ years’ experience hold permanent full-time or pro-rata contracts.