Mr. Pat Burke:

I will recap on the post-primary situation. The allocation of 37 hours is a post-primary phenomenon only and it was needed at post-primary level because we do not have the class teacher occupying the class for the full day. There is no doubt the regime of substitution and supervision as it existed at primary school level in 2002 was a great deal more satisfactory than what obtained at second level. We have a concept of the common basic scale for teachers' pay at both levels. Primary and second level teachers have been remunerated equally for many decades. In 2000, there was a real issue of whether we would seek to apply an allowance only to the second level sector, thereby breaking the common basic scale and, probably in perception terms, be seen to reward unions that had embarked on industrial action while we did nothing at primary level. That was a tactical issue at the time. The tactical call of the Government was to maintain the common salary scale and structure for both and, in the process, get greater certainty on primary level, albeit where needs were not as great. I entirely acknowledge the point of Deputy Eoghan Murphy. When we look at this, we ask what is the extra provided at both levels. There is no question that the extra has greater tangibility at second level but these were the factors at the time, leading to the approach we took.