The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012).
In accordance with Department Circulars 0044/2019 and 31/2011, schools are required to employ appropriately qualified and registered teachers and ensure that unemployed teachers should be offered employment in preference to those who have retired.
Teacher allocations to all schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolments. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department website.
The deployment of teaching staff in the school, the range of subjects offered and ultimately the quality of teaching and learning are in the first instance a matter for the school management authorities.
My Department runs a comprehensive programme of work to support the supply of both primary and post-primary teachers.
Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) will represent a new source of supply in 2022/23. In excess of 3,200 primary and post-primary NQTs have had their registrations finalised by the Teaching Council to date with almost 100 further applications currently in progress.
Following engagement with the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) who provide programmes for initial teacher education (ITE), put in place new ITE undergraduate programmes since 2019 in a number of post-primary priority subject areas, including Irish, mathematics, computer science and modern foreign languages.
In February 2019, my Department launched a scheme to allow post-primary schools to share teachers in priority subjects. The aim of the circular is to provide a way for schools to recruit teachers in the high demand subjects while also facilitating new teachers with a full time contract.
Turasabhaile is a service developed by the post-primary school management bodies and National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals which matches registered teachers’ resident abroad with post-primary vacancies in schools in Ireland.
The Irish Primary Principals’ Network is also developing a new central portal for the recruitment of teachers to long-term teaching positions in both primary and post-primary schools. It is anticipated that this portal will be available to schools and teachers in the coming months.
