789. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she plans to make teaching more attractive to individuals by providing qualified teachers with better pathways to secure stable employment; if there are plans to facilitate the reporting by teachers of issues of concern with school management other than to the board of management; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41984/26]

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 March 2026, there are over 74,000 teachers employed in Irish schools, including 40,283 at primary level and 34,396 at post-primary level. This analysis found that just 0.1% of allocations (24 posts) in primary and 1.4% of allocations (477 posts) in post-primary were unutilised.

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 under the current pay deal. Few teachers resign, with less than 3% of the teaching workforce resigning or retiring annually from contracted teaching posts.

My Department has recently published revised arrangements for the award of a Contract of Indefinite Duration (CID) to teachers, which fulfilled a promise made by my predecessor last year. The revised criteria allow for teachers to gain a permanent contract through the award of a CID after one year where they have completed a year of continuous service, where the school has a viable post available, and where the teacher has been re-appointed by the school following a competitive recruitment process. The ability to access a CID a year earlier will help teachers to place their careers on a more stable footing much sooner than before, providing teachers with the certainty that they need.

The revised arrangements for the award of a CID have been introduced following extensive engagement with the Education Partners and it is not currently intended to make any further amendments to the eligibility criteria for the award of a CID.

In addition, this 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.

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 & society, and 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.

Under the provisions of the Education Act 1998, the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school on behalf of the patron and the principal is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school. Schools are public bodies and employers under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, meaning they must comply with strict whistleblowing rules, including having formal reporting channels and policies in place for their staff.