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Up to 3,600 unqualified people have worked as teachers in Irish schools over the 2016/2017 academic year.

Schools are struggling to find cover, leading to unqualified personnel covering sick leave, maternity leave and career breaks.

Irish schools are permitted to use unqualified individuals to fill in for teachers but only as a last resort.

However, this is only ever intended as a short-term measure, with no unqualified person allowed to work more than five days at any one school.

(Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images))

In total, these unqualified substitutes worked 32,000 days during the 2016/2017 school year.

Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan, a former teacher, who now sits on the board of education at a school on Dublin's Northside, told The Irish Times these arrangements are putting pressure on students.

“We have been unable to fill the position, so we have no choice. When a new person comes in, there is catch-up. It makes it extremely difficult.

"The key to teaching is the relationship between the teacher and pupil. If you have constant change, all of that gets disrupted".

Commenting on the figures, the Department of Education said the recruitment of teachers was down to individual school authorities.

A statement said schools are required to hire "registered and qualified teachers", however, an unregistered person may be appointed “where a school has made all reasonable efforts to appoint a registered teacher in accordance with the normal appointment procedures and no registered teacher is available to take up the position in question”.