Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Minister to explain how he proposes to manage a teaching workforce which is paid according to two different salary scales. New entrants will be paid at one scale while those who started as recently as 18 months ago will earn much more. A new entrant in 2010 could have received as much as €39,000, but salaries for new entrants have decreased to €32,000 this year when the supervision allowance is included.

The 2011 OECD report, Education at a Glance, showed that in Ireland, those in the teaching profession earn 12% less than their colleagues with similar educational experience in other sectors. That issue already exists within the workforce. By withdrawing a system where there is recognition of higher qualifications and of the highly skilled and trained people coming into the education system and encouragement of that, the Minister is setting up a system in which it will be more difficult to attract the top level graduates we need. He is also damaging morale in a workforce where new entrants must work next to colleagues who may be earning 25% more than them although their experience and qualifications are similar. Will the Minister address that issue and say how intends to manage it?

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