Thousands of school children are still being taught by people without any recognised teaching qualifications, the Department of Education has revealed.
This means that in some cases, individuals with only Leaving Certificate qualifications are teaching both primary and post-primary classes.
There are currently 574 unqualified primary teachers on the Department of Education's payroll, latest figures show.
Although this represents a decrease of some 338 from November 2002, it indicates that schools in the sector continue to experience difficulties in recruiting suitably-qualified staff.
Dublin has the highest number of unqualified primary teachers in the country, at 167, but there are 24 such teachers in Cork, 15 in Galway and 14 in Limerick.
However, Meath, Wicklow, Louth and Kildare all have significantly more unqualified teachers than these three counties. In contrast, there are only two unqualified primary teachers in Kerry.
According to Mr John Carr of the INTO, the figures do not include the hundreds of trained post-primary teachers who are currently recognised to teach at primary level in order to ease staffing shortages. They also fail to take into account the hundreds of unqualified substitutes who cover for short-term absences of teachers.
Furthermore, 350 new primary teaching posts need to be filled following the recent announcement by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, that he would be creating new posts to teach children with special needs.
Topline figures released by the Department of Education have also revealed there are a further 204 unqualified teachers at post-primary level.