Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Byrne for raising these issues and I assure him I would be more than happy to meet him on these or on any other issues he wishes to discuss. The purpose of the wider framework of public service agreements is to balance the rightful ambition of public servants to see improvements in their pay and conditions after a long number of years of pressure with the needs of the public to see improvements in the services. The Deputy has outlined the pressures as they applied to the teaching profession but the pressures apply right across the public service. We have seen very difficult times in many public services and there are pressing needs in many areas, not just in education but also in health and housing etc., as the Deputy is aware.

These agreements, in particular the most recent, the Lansdowne Road agreement, and its predecessor, the Haddington Road agreement, bring important benefits for public servants generally and teachers in particular, including increments, supervision and substitution payments, protection against compulsory redundancy and the alleviation of the FEMPI pay cut for higher earners. The agreement has been endorsed by the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The agreements also bring significant benefits for users of public services, which benefits in the education sector include the so-called Croke Park hours - the additional 33 hours that teachers work under the agreement - which help ensure parent-teacher meetings, staff meetings and other activities can proceed without schools being closed during the school day.

Just as being inside these agreements bring benefits, it is also important to point out that being outside these agreements brings risks for both public servants and for the wider public who use the services they provide. ASTI members voted at ballot last autumn not to accept the Lansdowne Road agreement. However, they have continued to abide by the Haddington Road agreement which has an original expiry date of 30 June 2016. Following a recent ballot, ASTI members have now voted to withdraw from the Croke Park hours upon completion of the Haddington Road agreement. The Croke Park hours are a valuable resource within the school system that allow certain essential activities involving the entire teaching staff or groups of teachers to take place. These include staff meetings, parent-teacher meetings, school planning, subject planning and mandated continuing professional development. Except for an element of parent-teacher and staff meetings, prior to the Croke Park agreement these essential activities took place within tuition time, meaning that schools closed for full or half days to carry them out. Pupils did not attend the school during these closures, resulting in interruption to tuition, additional child care costs and significant inconvenience for parents, particularly the parents of primary school children. Under the Croke Park agreement, teachers agreed to provide one hour of additional time per week in order that these essential activities could be carried out without school closure and the consequent interruption to tuition for pupils and inconvenience for parents. This time commitment continues under the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements.

It is important to note that many public servants committed significantly more hours than this under the public service agreements. In withdrawing from these hours, the ASTI is thereby repudiating the Lansdowne Road agreement. In opting to withdraw from the Lansdowne Road agreement, ASTI members are also opting to forgo a series of benefits and protections, as communicated by my Department previously. These include avoiding an increment freeze, continuation of the alleviation of the FEMPI Act 2013, pay cuts for higher earners, the supervision and substitution payment of €796 due to be paid on 1 September and protection against compulsory redundancy. A further significant consequence will be the withdrawal of the benefits introduced for new teachers under the Ward report, which enable them to gain permanent employment and full hours more quickly than before.

I am aware of union concerns regarding the usage of the Croke Park hours. In response to those concerns, my Department recently agreed with the INTO and the TUI that the usage would be reviewed, having regard to teacher professional judgement, system and school requirements and experience to date of best practice in the utilisation of the hours. As an immediate first step in that review, the maximum period of time available for planning and development work on other than a whole-school basis will be increased from five hours to eight hours from the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year and to ten hours from the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. TUI members are balloting on acceptance of this agreement and implementation of the review will be contingent on such acceptance. If the agreement with the TUI is endorsed by its members at ballot, this will also enable the implementation of other measures, including the re-use of flex hours and the implementation of the Cush report recommendations for fixed-term and part-time lecturers at third level.

The ASTI was invited to discussions with my Department on the same basis as the INTO and the TUI. Regrettably, the ASTI declined to take part in such discussions and instead decided to ballot on a withdrawal from the Croke Park hours. My Department’s invitation to the ASTI to discuss issues of mutual concern remains open. It demonstrates that the Lansdowne Road agreement is a framework within which genuine progress can be made.

Separately, the ASTI continues to operate a directive of non-co-operation with the new junior cycle programme that is being implemented in all schools. This is creating a disadvantage for their students and is unfair as well as denying their own members essential professional development and support. This needs to be addressed and I have written to the ASTI to arrange for an engagement on this following its indication that it would be willing to do so.

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