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

The Minister created a serious issue here with the stance taken by him whereby new entrants to the teaching profession are on a radically reduced salary from that of those entering only a year previously. The starting salary has gone from €39,000 a couple years ago to €31,000 now.

This is a matter I raised with the Minister in a Topical Issue debate the first week back after the summer recess. In response to my question on how he would manage teaching staff where new entrants were on a radically reduced salary from that of teachers who are teaching next door, the Minister outlined that he inherited the Croke Park agreement and his information was that he could not address salaries or allowances at this point in time. Also in response to me, the Minister outlined that he wanted to negotiate a new agreement and that the discrepancy between new teachers' salaries and existing teachers' salaries was something he would want to address at that stage and in that agreement. In my reading of it, that can only mean the Minister intends to revise downward overall teachers' salaries to come in line with the reduced rate he introduced for young teachers. Is that what he meant? Is that his intention?

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