Almost 80% of teachers who entered the profession before 2016 now say that they don’t believe they could afford to become a teacher today.

That’s just one of the alarming statistics released by the Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) ahead of the annual teacher’s trade union conferences this week, with results across the board highlighting the difficulties facing schools.

And while the education system’s problems have been well-publicised in recent years, the issue of finding and keeping teachers remains one that the government has few answers for.

One in five schools dropped subjects entirely in 2025 due to recruitment and retention problems, while 75% have advertised a position in the past six months only to get no applications.

On the flip side, only 35% of teachers who entered the workforce since 2011 were offered a full-time contract and of those who weren’t, the majority had to wait at least three years to receive one.

So on both ends of the spectrum (and lots of the bits in the middle) the system is simply not working.

Schools say that they can’t find teachers, new teachers say they can’t afford to apply to some positions and student teachers are overwhelmingly used to fill the gaps.

TUI are campaigning for teachers to receive full-time contracts from their initial appointment, for it to be easier for Irish teachers to come home from abroad and for the current two years it takes to qualify to teach in secondary schools via a Masters to be reduced to one.

The union says this would boost recruitment, and it would to a degree, but like many problems across the country you can draw a fairly straight line between low teacher numbers and the housing crisis.

A full-time contract is great but if you can’t afford to live near or drive to the school – especially with the rising cost of fuel – how can you accept?

Similarly, bringing back teachers from abroad is a great idea, but why did most of them leave? It wasn’t because of the abundant housing options in their hometowns, that’s for sure.

Over a third (35%) of respondents to the survey said they were aware of colleagues who ceased employment at their school ‘due to the housing crisis’.

That’s not people who turned down a job because of unsuitable living arrangements, that’s people who quit because of them.

Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton (FG) has been addressing teachers union conferences all week, telling them her key areas for the coming year are teacher professional development, helping teachers and school leaders focus on teaching and reforms to special education to make the system more inclusive for all.

Perhaps a call or two to her colleague with the housing brief would be worth adding to that agenda.