Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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139. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to major difficulties being faced by primary school principals in sourcing substitute teachers; the way in which she plans to rectify same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51579/21]

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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149. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps her Department is taking to address the staffing crisis facing many primary schools in regard to substitute teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51725/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 139 and 149 together.

A range of measures have been put in place to provide enhanced substitute cover in the context of Covid-19. These include a major expansion of the Primary Schools Substitute Teacher Supply Panels, which now employ almost 380 teachers and provide substitute cover to over 2,500 primary schools across the country. Further work is underway to ascertain if there are ways the operation of the panels can be enhanced to help with substitute teacher supply.

The Supply Panels work alongside the existing methods of sourcing substitute teachers, such as the national substitution portal service Sub Seeker, operated by the Irish Primary Principals Network and developed in accordance with my Department's Teacher Supply Action Plan. Schools can also make local arrangements to have their own regular substitutes to call on if needed.

Measures are also underway to raise awareness of the availability of substitute work in primary schools. The Teaching Council has emailed over 111,000 teachers on its register, asking any who may be available for substitute work to register with Sub Seeker.

My Department has also adjusted its payroll operational arrangements so that the restriction on the number of days that teachers on career break may be employed as substitutes has been suspended and teachers who are job sharing are allowed to work additional hours

My Department and the Teaching Council are also planning to meet with the providers of primary initial teacher education (ITE) in the coming days to explore how flexibility in ITE programme delivery could facilitate additional substitute supply.

My Department is engaging on an ongoing basis with stakeholders to analyse the demand for substitution and to identify means to improve the availability of substitutes at this time.