Calls for infrastructure fund to address teacher shortage

An organisation representing primary school principals has called for an infrastructural fund to be created to invest in accommodation for key workers, including teachers, in urban areas such as Dublin where schools continue to experience chronic staffing shortages.

Responding to findings that estimate more than 4,600 Irish teachers are working abroad, CEO of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) Páiric Clerkin said the root cause of the problem was the housing crisis.

"Most of these teachers are in their mid to late 20s," he said.

"They can't come back because they can’t afford accommodation and that has to be addressed," he added.

Mr Clerkin was speaking in Killarney where more than 900 primary school principals have been attending the annual conference of the IPPN.

The findings are contained in an analysis by the Teaching Council in conjunction with the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Education.

It looked at the number of teachers who are registered with the council as teachers but for whom no evidence of taxable income or social welfare here is recorded.

The assumption drawn from this is that those teachers are working abroad.

It costs €65 per annum to be on the Teaching Council register.

It is difficult to re-register so many people choose to remain on the register even if they are not currently working here as teachers.

According to figures published in the Irish Times, there are 4,672 teachers on the register - 1,792 primary and 2,169 second level - who are not economically active and are assumed to be living abroad.

About 60% of them are aged between 25 - 34.

Mr Clerkin said the country needed to "look at a long-term fix".

"The pinch points are in the urban areas; schools in Dublin and the surrounding areas are under considerable pressure," he said.

In other parts of the country school principals report difficulty finding substitute teachers but say they are able to recruit for longer term vacancies.