Mr. John Boyle:

On the primary side, we have had two official meetings with departmental representatives every week, starting well before July. In the week of 17 August, as we got closer to opening time, we had two official meetings and four unofficial or side meetings with different stakeholders.

We are well paid in our positions. We worked through our annual leave and on the bank holiday Monday to facilitate the Department with responses to documents. I must give a shout out to the school principals in the primary sector. I do not know if it is well known that those principal teachers in the smaller, one, two, three, four and five-teacher schools who worked all through the summer received a payment before tax of €180 per week, not per day. There are 1,700 such principals and they have been waiting for a payment of an additional €60 per week for 13 years now.

I was proud to represent 44,000 teachers during the pandemic as we negotiated the safe reopening of schools. They are the people who put on the green jersey and need to be looked after. The public servants of Ireland have done mammoth work in the past six months and we must make sure that we remember that when we enter negotiations on the next pay deal.