I propose to take Questions Nos. 425, 426 and 431 together.
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.
As of March 2026, there are over 74,000 teachers employed in Irish schools, including 34,396 at post-primary level. This analysis found that just 1.4% of allocations (477 posts) in post-primary were unutilised. This relatively low vacancy rate suggests that the vast majority of schools are well-staffed and able to meet the needs of their students.
Teaching is an attractive profession, and there are a significant number of newly qualified teachers graduating annually. Over 3,600 newly qualified teachers registered with the Teaching Council in 2025 and CAO data shows a consistent demand for undergraduate ITE programmes. Salaries are competitive, currently starting at €45,379 (primary) and €46,948 (post-primary) and rising to €83,576 and €85,411 respectively under the current pay deal. Few teachers resign, with less than 3% of the teaching workforce resigning or retiring annually from contracted teaching posts.
While the Department does not yet have the data for the number of unfilled post-primary teaching posts in the 2025/2026 school year, by subject or region, data published by the Department for the vacancies for the 2023/2024 school year is available through the Survey of Teacher Unmet Demand in Post Primary Schools 2023/24 report, at this link: assets.gov.ie/static/documents/f30264cc/Survey_of_Unmet_Demand_School_year_2023_24.pdf.
A number of measures have been introduced to address subject-specific teacher shortages:
- STEM Bursary: a €2,000 annual bursary for student teachers in STEM fields, including maths, chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and engineering, during the final two years of their undergraduate teacher education, with a requirement to complete at least two years of teaching post-qualification in a recognised post-primary school.
- Upskilling programmes: upskilling programmes for teachers are offered in high-demand subjects: Irish, French, politics & society, computer science, maths, physics and Spanish. These flexible programmes, free to registered teachers, boost teachers’ employment opportunities while addressing subject-specific teacher shortages.
To address teacher supply issues more generally, 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 of teachers registered with the Teaching Council since 2017.
My Department has recently published revised arrangements for the award of a Contract of Indefinite Duration to teachers; teachers taking up their first contract in a viable post will be eligible for a permanent position after one year, subject to successful re-appointment through a competitive process.
Recently regulations were approved to allow teachers who qualified overseas to undertake their induction in the State and incremental credit is also available to teachers returning from abroad, depending on the teaching experience gained.
A comprehensive workforce plan for the education sector, a commitment under the Programme for Government, is in development. Additionally, a project focused on strategic workforce planning for teachers in Ireland, led by UNESCO and supported by the EU Commission, is developing recommendations for addressing the main factors affecting teacher supply in Ireland. The recommendations put forward in the context of the project will form the basis for the development by my Department of a strategic workforce plan for the teaching workforce in Ireland.
