School Staff
Dail Éireann — 2025-02-27
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Darren O'Rourke (SF), Meath East

Will the Minister give us a timeline for those proposals and outline the nature of them? I appreciate that some may require funding. The picture is one of a crisis and emergency. At primary level, there has a shortage of more than 2,500 teachers for the 2024-25 academic year. There are many unfilled posts, and a large number of schools have had to use unqualified staff to cover absences.
At secondary level, it was reported in a recent survey that 64% of schools have unfilled vacancies due to recruitment and retention difficulties and that 20% have been forced to drop subjects as a result. One of the measures that was previously introduced, but there seems to be a delay in relation to it this time round, is the likes of a time-bound provision for people who could do their droichead or induction in Ireland if they trained elsewhere. I know from the Teaching Council that this was due to happen in quarter 1 but that it been delayed slightly. Is that something the Minister would like to introduce?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-02-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:33+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-02-27