The Minister for Education has said that "nothing is ever off the table" when asked whether she would consider reducing the duration of the post-graduate Masters in Education from two years to one.
Norma Foley was speaking on RTÉ's News at One about possible measures that could be taken to address the chronic shortage of teachers.
Signalling that consideration may be given to a reduction or alteration of the two-year course duration, Ms Foley said a second time that "nothing is totally off the table".
A spokesperson for the minister has confirmed that the issue "is being looked at".
He said this was "in the context of unions requesting it, and it has been [looked at] for well over a year".
But he said the strong advice from the Teaching Council was that the two-year course length was merited.
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Just over a decade ago the length of the post-graduate teaching qualification was increased from one year to two.
Second-level teacher unions have long called for the duration to be brought back to one year as a way of tackling the teacher shortage.
They and other education bodies say many potential teachers are deterred by the two-year duration of the qualification for which students must pay around €6,000 per year.
Defending the two-year duration Ms Foley said: "Over time the demands of education have changed quite considerably ... and therefore the teaching preparation courses have had to reflect that in terms of the two years".
"We need to have full training but you know nothing is totally off the table," she added.
Other education bodies are known to favour an apprentice-style approach which would see trainee teachers based more in schools for the second year of their qualification.
