Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the delegations. In the Department of Defence the interaction between unions and management worked well and it provided an interesting partnership dynamic. That is what the committee is doing in examining these allowances.

Up to 90% of teachers, 58,000, in primary, secondary and the vocational education committee schools, are claiming two allowances. It strikes me that the bulk of this is actually core pay. What is the percentage of teachers with honours degrees? Teaching is one of the more noble professions. Having a good body of teachers is key to the future. Everyone will agree that, on reflection, one of the people who made a significant impression on us when we were growing up was a good teacher. Having a good body of teachers cannot be undervalued.

However, we need to have an allowance system that is evolving. For example, with growing obesity among young people, there does not seem to be an allowance to encourage teachers to get involved in sporting activities in school. In many cases, sports coaching in school is done by teachers staying back after school with no allowance. I feel the teachers’ representative bodies are not putting forward realistic proposals for these allowances and the sporting case is one example of this.

Many of these allowances should go but it must also be realised many of them are core pay. Around the whole debate about the Croke Park agreement and allowances, there has been a terrible lack of common sense. When we discussed allowances with the Department of Defence, we noted many of them were outdated. In the case of the Department of Education and Skills, some of them go back 90 and 100 years. I would like some of these allowances to be redirected into areas such as tackling obesity through sporting activity.

We have tremendous teachers and schools. We should use the Croke Park agreement as a vehicle to achieve a fit-for-purpose sector. It should not be about going for the headline figures in allowances which in many cases are not material amounts anyway. They may look good for the media but they show very little. I want to see value for money for the taxpayer, parents and children.

The qualifications allowance makes up 44% of all allowances. Along with the supervision and two management allowances, they make up 95% of all allowances. In essence, this is core pay. While the Department may see it is a management position, these allowances have done a disservice to those working in the public sector. There are also allowances that should go.

Is there any allowance to encourage teachers to get involved in sport for children? Why is physical education not part of the primary school curriculum? When schools take on a substitute teacher, they seem to take on retired teachers. Why can they not take on unemployed teaching graduates? Is there a monitoring system in place to ask schools to explain why they took on a retired teacher instead of an unemployed graduate as a substitute teacher?

Where does the Department stand on the arbitration process on the allowances submitted by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform? There is much brouhaha around the Croke Park agreement. It must be accepted these allowances are part of core pay. The exercise the committee is conducting should remove those allowances that are outdated or unnecessary. However, those involved in core pay should be re-analysed as reimbursements. Allowances should also be updated to deal with the modern schooling environment. Can allowances be redirected to provide, for example, information and communication technology or second foreign language teaching? I want to see these allowances becoming fit for purpose. I want to see the public sector churning. We have tremendous talent within the teaching profession which I have seen with my own children’s experience of it.

I cannot overstate the importance of primary schooling. It sets the foundations for children and we cannot compromise on quality. Will Mr. Ó Foghlú give an overview? How many teachers have honours degrees?