Written answers
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Department of Education and Skills
Teaching Qualifications
Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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412. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures her Department is taking to provide a fair and accessible pathway to primary teacher registration for qualified, experienced teachers who hold Irish teaching degrees and have substantial overseas primary teaching experience; if she will consider extending to these teachers the same pre-assessment and shortfall-identification process recently introduced for teachers who qualified outside the State; if she will review the current reliance on high-cost private programmes such as Hibernia as the only realistic route for many returning teachers to gain primary registration, particularly in light of ongoing teacher shortages, including in Irish medium and rural schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65872/25]
Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the Teaching Council Registration Regulations, 2025. (www.teachingcouncil.ie/assets/uploads/2025/10/SI.2025.0482_TC_Registration_Regulations.pdf) As set out in the Schedule to the Regulations, the Council registers teachers under five routes of registration: Route 1 - Primary, Route 2 - Post-primary, Route 3 - Further Education, Route 4 - Other and Route 5 - Student Teacher. The qualification requirements for each route are set down in the Schedule to the Regulations.
The Teaching Council is the regulator of the teaching profession in Ireland. Its role is to protect the public by promoting and regulating professional standards in teaching. This is discharged through the statutory registration of teachers, ensuring a highly qualified teaching profession, whose members meet and uphold high standards of professional competence and conduct. The department has no role in the registration of individual teachers.
As a statutory professional standards body, the Teaching Council is required by law to properly determine and to authenticate the relevant standards and qualifications of all applicants for registration. One of the ways the Council ensures and regulates standards is by ensuring that all teachers entering the profession in the Republic of Ireland have met the required standards.
The qualification requirements as set out for Route 1- Primary are that a person holds either:
Or
- recognised Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree in Primary Education
To assist with teacher supply challenges, in the Teaching Council’s recently revised Registration Regulations, 2025, which were effected on 16 October 2025, a mechanism has been created which provides for teachers who completed a teacher education qualification in another country, but have not completed any mandated induction or post-qualification employment period there, to apply for registration and complete Droichead (induction) here in the Republic of Ireland. Specific eligibility and qualification requirements apply to this mechanism, and it is open for applications until 30 December 2027.
- holds both:
- A recognised initial primary teacher education qualification and
- A primary degree at Level 8 or a qualification at Level 9 on the National Framework of Qualifications which has a credit weighting of at least 180 ECTS credits.
The regulations for routes of registration and qualifications are a matter for the Teaching Council under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015. The department determines the school sectors and settings where those routes of registrations apply, as outlined in Terms and Conditions circulars.
An appropriately accredited and recognised teaching qualification obtained in Ireland is currently eligible for registration, subject to the usual Teaching Council procedures. There is no mechanism whereby non-accredited or recoginsed domestic qualifications can be facilitated, as the transparent and equal application of published regulations, criteria and procedures in the state to all applicants for registration are important legal principles.
The institute referred to by the Deputy in this query, is a private provider offering various programmes, and the department does not have any role in the courses they deliver, or any other higher education institutions.
While it is acknowledged that acute shortages exist in some schools, and sectors, and locations, the vast majority of allocated posts are filled, the number of registered teachers has increased significantly in recent years. It should be noted that there has been an increase of 20% in teachers graduating in Ireland between 2018 and 2023 from accredited and recognised programmes, and an over 30% increase in the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council since 2017 with 126,000 on the register this year.
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