581. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of substitute teachers available to schools in County Meath; the impact of shortages on teaching provision; the steps being taken to address these shortages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34411/26]

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.??

There are more qualified teachers than ever working in Ireland. As of November 2025, there are over 75,000 teachers employed in Irish schools, including 39,300 at primary level, 34,600 at post-primary level and 1,870 in special schools. This analysis found that 2.5% of allocations (996 posts) in primary and 0.7% of allocations (247 posts) in post-primary were unutilised.? Few teachers resign, with less than 3% of the teaching workforce resigning or retiring annually from contracted teaching posts.

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 €83,000 and €85,000 respectively under the current pay deal.

According to Department payroll data from March 2025, there were 2,311 unfilled teaching posts in Meath, 1,701 at primary level (3.1% of allocations) and 610 at post-primary (2.6% of allocations). Department data shows that there were 40,713 days substitution claimed for through the Online Claims System in Meath in the 2024/25 school year, an 11% decrease on days substitution claimed in the previous school year 2023/24. In 2024/25, just 7% of substituted days were provided by persons not registered with the Teaching Council.

There are a range of measures in place to improve the availability of substitutes to schools.

Substitutable leave absences may be filled by schools in several ways.? A substitute teacher may be recruited locally by a school, and a claim for payment for the teacher may be submitted to my Department, via the Online Claims System. Alternatively, the absence may be covered by schools under a number of schemes, which are managed locally by schools.?

The Supervision and Substitution Scheme allows for the supervision of students during breaks and before and after school and allows for substitution to cover certain categories of teacher absences. With effect from the beginning of the 2013/14 school year, participation in the Supervision and Substitution scheme is compulsory for teachers, save for those who had availed of the opt-out arrangements before this date.?All schools therefore provide cover for a significant number of substitutable absences, arising over the school year, through the Supervision and Substitution scheme.?

For primary schools, substitute teacher supply panels are also in place. For the 2025/26 school year, 587 substitute teacher supply posts have been allocated to 168 panels, covering 2,905 schools This scheme provides substitute cover for teachers employed in primary schools who are absent on short-term leave. Absences covered by the teacher supply panels are recorded locally by the schools and the schools are not required to claim for the substitutable leave to my Department.?

The Department has continued the suspension of the usual limits on career break and job-sharing schemes to the current school year 2025/26 to increase the pool of teachers available to undertake substitute work in primary and post-primary schools.

Communications campaigns have also been run to encourage retired teachers to return to teaching and student teachers registered under Route 5 with the Teaching Council provide valuable substitution cover.

In addition, the Government has implemented several measures to address teacher supply issues more generally that have led to:

- an increase of 20% in initial teacher education graduates (student teachers) between 2018 and 2023, and

- an over 30% increase in the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council since 2017.

These include improving tenure for 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 number of measures have been introduced to address subject-specific teacher shortages:

- STEM Bursary: a €2k annual bursary for student teachers in STEM fields during the final two years of their undergraduate teacher education, with a requirement to complete at least 2 years of teaching post-qualification in a recognised post-primary school.

- Upskilling programmes: free upskilling programmes for teachers are offered in high-demand subjects: Irish, French, politics and society, computer science, maths, physics, and Spanish.

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.