Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

On the overall point, a high percentage of the education budget is pay but that does not mean the pay budget cannot be reduced. We can change teacher allocations and not replace teachers who retire. Just because pay makes up a certain percentage of the budget does not mean there cannot be reductions in the pay budget without touching pay rates. It is an important point. The measures introduced in recent years, as well as the Government measures relating to pension-related deductions and pay, teacher and other education personnel allocation decisions resulted in reduced numbers working in the education sector.

On Deputy Eoghan Murphy's second point, we have a position where a number of teachers do not want this to be part of their core functions. Some 5% have decided not to do it and we have an issue in that respect when considering a future approach. If we bring this back within the pay structure, we would require them to undertake duties they are not happy to do. Typically, we would have to bring the amount into the salary. We have done so for new entrants as we have slightly changed the conditions attaching to the supervision and substitution. This applies to more than 95% of new entrants who, given that they are starting their careers, are opting for supervision and substitution. We consider the starting salary for new entrants to be the first point of the new scale plus supervision and substitution. In the case of existing teachers, we have had discussions in the context of the Croke Park agreement about supervision and substitution and the agreement is that teachers will agree to make themselves more available under the Croke Park discussions on hours.