Ms Joanne Irwin:

In response to Deputy O'Sullivan, a great deal of this is about the pay. The reason it is about the pay is because there are 70,000 teachers across the primary and post-primary sectors. In every primary and post-primary school in Ireland, there is somebody in that staffroom who is paid differently because of when he or she entered the profession. That has resulted in the conversation in every staffroom being about teachers being treated differently from their colleagues.

Morale is now at an all-time low and that is not fair to students. It is not fair to teachers either but it is ultimately not fair to students. We recently compiled a survey and 95% of respondents told us that the status of teaching has fallen. Anybody who goes in to teaching does so because he or she loves teaching or has experience of having a great teacher in school. That is why I went into teaching. A teacher made a huge difference to my life and I would like to be able to make that change to someone else's life. However, we now have 70,000 teachers up and down the country telling their sons and daughters not to go into teaching because it is no longer an attractive profession. Some 52% of all new entrants since 2011 stated that they would not tell a younger relative to go into the profession because they are sitting in a classroom and being treated differently.

We are supposed to teach our students about equality. It is a very important issue. We are doing it at the minute. We have referendums going on. Equality is a big talking point in all of our schools yet teachers are not being treated equally. It is a major issue. The unions are not helping in this because we are saying that teaching is not an attractive profession, and we will continue to say it until we have pay equality across the board.

The committee will see a dramatic increase in the number of applicants to go into teaching if this issue is resolved. We know it will not be resolved overnight - we are realistic - but it needs to be resolved so that we can focus on the other aspects of education. Since 2011, the focus at every branch meeting, certainly those I have been at, is the fact that teachers are paid differently.

Some of my own family are in Dubai teaching. They ask: "Why should we teach here? Why should we be here to be treated differently? We cannot afford to live here. We are tax free in Dubai and get two flights home every year." They see it as a great life but it is not right that we are educating teachers to go abroad. That is a waste of taxpayers' money. It is not right that we would treat our citizens like that either.

People say it is not only a pay issue, that we need reliable data and other mechanisms. However, that is only kicking the problem down the road. It is only dealing with the symptoms, not the disease. If pay parity is finally restored, the committee will see a dramatic increase in applications. I am glad that DCU has not experienced a drop but the applications through the post-graduate application centre have dropped by 60% from the date that discriminatory pay scales were put in place. That is the major issue.

Finally, 22% or one in five of all new entrants do not get a full-time contract when they start out. Something that could be addressed straightaway is that they would get a permanent position, obviously, on probation. They are entitled to probation for the first year. It could be addressed that they would get full-time positions from the start. Even if it is not permanent, to get a full-time position from the start would solve the problem also. Teachers will not stay on three or four hours in a school to teach physics when they can get a job in industry and start off on €70,000 a year. It is a big difference. We need to address the core issue, which is the pay scales.