Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This review of allowances is seven months late and we have not been given an opportunity in the Dáil to debate the issues arising even though we were promised a debate on them. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has looked into his heart, de Valera style, and made this decision in secrecy. Despite extensive commentary on the matter there is very little concrete financial information in the public domain in terms of a breakdown of the allowances into individualised costings and, critically, who receives them and in what grades. In the absence of that information and a full debate in the Dáil, we will not have a full and fair decision-making process.

I have raised the issue of teachers because the Minister, Deputy Howlin, has been especially vindictive towards new entrants to the teaching profession. A young teacher who is lucky enough to start his or her career this month will earn just over €27,000, which is almost €12,000 less than a teacher recruited in 2010. Decisions that target the profession of teaching make no sense on any level. They will clearly dissuade the best and brightest from entering the profession, and for a Government which claims it will base economic regeneration on the education sector and a knowledge society, it is clearly not taking a joined-up approach in deliberately punishing young teachers in this manner.

The Minister for Education and Skills and his colleagues have repeated ad nauseam they are the ones for the tough decisions. As the Minister with a duty of care for teachers in the system and the new entrants who will join the profession, I challenge him to take the tough decision of deploying clause 1.28 of the Croke Park agreement for the specific task of addressing the issue of high pay in the public sector. It is a small proportion of the service but none the less almost 7,000 people earn salaries of more than €100,000. If he is prepared for tough decisions, he should address that issue but he should not allow his Cabinet colleague to attack and undermine the teaching profession and, by extension, the quality of education offered to our children and young people.

See this speech in context