Students are now starting to feel the impact of teacher shortages.
The Teachers Union of Ireland says secondary schools are having to drop certain subjects and limit enrollments because they can't find staff.
In the last 6 months, nearly 8 out of 10 schools which advertised a teaching job didn't receive a single application. Over 60 per cent of schools have teacher vacancies.
General Secretary of the TUI Michael Gillespie says students are now beginning to feel the impact of the recruitment crisis.
"Almost one in five schools have dropped subjects.
We see that nearly 50% have also put limits on the number of students going in.
And that's reflected of what we see in the subjects that they're struggling to get teachers for.
That they're not filling vacancies for so, the student's choice and availability of subjects is suffering."
Primary Schools
Primary schools are also feeling the impact of teacher shortages.
Last week, a survey of 1,000 schools found more than 800 vacant teaching posts.
To combat the lack of educators, special needs teachers and assistants have been enlisted to lead the classroom.
While others are forced to used unqualified staff or student teachers to fill the gaps.
Michael Gillespie says action needs to be taken, and fast;
"The crisis is getting worse.
It's going to affect, students all over the country, and we've got to do something about it.
Only 1% of our school principals and deputies believe that enough is being done to tackle the problem.
We need to do something fairly major to start getting our teachers home that are abroad.
We know there are thousands of teachers in Dubai."
Several factors have been blamed for the lack of available teachers. The amount of teacher's taking job in the private sector or abroad has risen.
However, the biggest issue facing teachers is the lack of affordable accommodation in urban areas.
