Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Finance the way private sector employees in the teaching profession can be considered public sector employees for the purposes of a tax on salary when they are not employed by the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12909/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is presumed the Deputy is referring to the pay cut introduced by the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009. The reductions apply irrespective of whether a particular post is funded in whole or in part through non-Exchequer funds or income. It is important to understand that while there is a variety of staff across the education sector who are employed by public service bodies as determined under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009, who are either wholly or partly funded from non-Exchequer sources, there are also staff undertaking the same or very similar duties whose posts are fully Exchequer funded. All of these staff have now been made subject to the terms of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009.

Differentiation between workers paid exclusively through privately raised funds in recognised fee-paying schools and those funded in whole or in part through Exchequer funds would create difficulties as there is a variety of staff across the education sector who are employed by public service bodies but who are either wholly or partly funded from non-Exchequer sources. Within this cadre, there are also staff undertaking the same or similar duties to staff who are fully Exchequer funded. It would be inequitable and inappropriate to exempt the staff paid exclusively through privately raised funds from the pay reductions while other staff continued to be subject to the legislation.