Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

That is an important piece of information. The view of the unions is now the Minister of State's view as well, that those working in a temporary capacity within the schools, often on five or six hours a week, will find their pay slashed by 5%. The Minister of State has just confirmed that for the information of the House.

Is it fair and reasonable that a group of people, who have no standing, who have no pension entitlement, who have no status or standing within the school where theirs is a week-by-week, month-by-month contract, and who want to become full-time eventually and have all of the resulting advantages, must face an across-the-board cut in their temporary pay at the same rate of other workers? Can the Minister of State justify that to a range of persons, particularly those within the education sector who are five or ten years out of college and who still cannot find a full-time permanent job within the sector and are unlikely to do so given the Government's curtailment in the number of new teaching posts in the next three years?

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