Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
237. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education the revenue saved due to the number of unfilled permanent teaching positions for 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 the school years, broken down by country, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3472/24]
View answerThe recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for individual school authorities, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). In that regard there are more than 3,700 individual employers (boards of management of primary schools and post primary schools, as well as ETBs).
While my Department does not collect data on the recruitment by individual employers, an analysis of the Department’s payroll system is being undertaken to generate statistics on the teacher workforce across the country for the 2023-2024 school year and will use this for reporting on workforce statistics going forward. This will include statistics on the Full Time Equivalents (FTE), permanent and fixed contracts, with breakdowns possible by County. This work began recently and is ongoing, the relevant data for 2023-2024 is expected to be available in the near future.
Statistical information on the headcount of teachers is already produced in a similar way, and is available on My Departments website www.gov.ie/en/publication/c97fbd-teacher-statistics/.
These statistics are extracted from the mentioned payroll databases using a single extract (30th June) each year and includes contracted and casual teachers.
Information on salary scales for teachers and substitute teachers is available on www.gov.ie/en/publication/84856-salary-scales/#teachers.
