Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will leave the matter of the way the meeting is being run and others until we go into private session, but I request that we be given time to discuss them.

I thank the Minister for his statement. As we are dealing with the programme that covers salaries, I will call out the elephant in the room - pay inequality. I am aware of the ruling of the European Court of Justice in recent weeks. I would say the Government was pleased with it. On the issue of age discrimination, it indicated that it was based more on the date of entry into a position, but that is a technicality when we all know that the vast majority of new entrants are young people. It is young teachers who are continually being sold out. The arrangement worked out by the Government in September which will take effect soon does not address the fundamental underlying issue, that is, the concept of equal pay for equal work. Unlike his predecessor, I ask the Minister to recognise that principle. Yesterday I read with interest the news of the job-sharing scheme for teachers. Perhaps it is a necessary move, but it fundamentally misses the point as to why over 90% of schools are struggling to recruit teachers. The reason is pay discrimination. One cannot have partial equality, which is what seems to be envisioned by the Government's approach. One cannot have a situation where everyone is equal but some are more equal than others. That is how young teachers feel. Therefore, I really urge the Minister to commit to recognising the principle of equal pay for equal work. Recruitment and retention are issues because of the cost facing graduates of pursuing a two-year professional master's in education degree.

They are also a problem because of the working conditions, the initiative overload, with document after document and change after change coming in, the quality of resources, the facilities in the schools, the need for a supplementary panel and, needless to say, the class sizes.

Another point is the superannuation section under this heading. In recent years we have approved substantial Supplementary Estimates every year to deal with unexpected expenditure and every year we bring this up. Has the Minister managed to sort out this anomaly? I would be grateful if he would provide an update on plans to develop a sustainable superannuation forecasting and funding model and a timeline for its completion.

Deputies Jan O'Sullivan and Thomas Byrne brought up the issue of PE halls. I know the Minister said he was conscious of the fact that there is weak infrastructure. I would like a little more light shed on this because since my election to the Dáil, I have asked for an audit of all schools so we can establish exactly how many schools do not have PE halls. However, every time I table this question there is a refusal to answer it. Yes, there is one in my constituency but there are others. I just do not understand how PE can be rolled out fairly and equally when there are students without PE halls, so I ask again for that audit.

I welcome the funding being allocated to well-being, following our own report on positive mental health in schools, including the funding for ten additional education psychologists. Does the Minister have plans to increase these numbers in the future?

Finally, while the Minister is here, I wish to bring up the recent call for geography to be restored as a core subject in the junior cycle curriculum. I welcome that he is reviewing the dropping of history. I really plead with him to review the decision to remove geography as a core subject too. We have students outside Leinster House every Friday. We have a movement for climate strike across the world led by Greta Thunberg on 15 March. Our students get it. Geography is crucial in educating our students on one of the most urgent issues facing humankind, and it is shocking that this Government would move to remove geography as a core subject. I ask the Minister to reconsider, as he did with history, the removal of geography and to please restore it as a core subject.