Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that things have gone this far, but there is still time for the ASTI to pull back. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, has been diligent in wanting to see the threatened strike being called off. It is a dispute that is unnecessary. Clearly, the issues that have led to it have already been dealt with for other unions within the Lansdowne Road agreement. The deal on offer to the ASTI, on which its members were balloted and which was accepted by other unions, would result in pay increases of between 15% and 22% for new entrants to teaching, with further benefits in working conditions and a route to possible further improvements through the public pay commission which was announced today by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and endorsed by the Government.

For the information of the House, under the proposed deal for new entrant teachers which is being implemented for the INTO and the TUI and which potentially is on offer to the ASTI, the starting pay of new entrant members would increase by 15% until 31 August 2016 and 1 January 2018, from €31,009 to €35,602. An individual member recruited since 1 September 2015 would see a 22% increase in his or her pay in the same period, from €31,000 to €37,723. In terms of career earnings, the deals that have been done would restore approximately three quarters of the reductions for new entrants since 2011.

In fairness to Deputy Micheál Martin, he raised a particular question about equality. I hope the threatened strike can be called off. Sensitive discussions are taking place. Equality and fairness are central to everything the Government tries to do, particularly in education where the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, has focused on creating better opportunities for people from disadvantaged areas in the school system and higher education.

As the Deputy knows, a number of measures were contained in the recent budget to deliver on this objective. As I have mentioned, the deal that was put on the table was accepted by the TUI and the INTO.

In respect of equality, there are others groups that we have to bear in mind. There is a need for equality between public servants in different parts of the public service. There is also a need for equality between public servants and those who work elsewhere or do not work at all. As IMPACT warned yesterday, it would not be equal or fair for us to make sectoral deals with particular public servants that would leave other public servants who had signed up to the Lansdowne Road agreement disadvantaged. It would also not be equal or fair for us to make unaffordable deals with particular public servants that would mean that we would have no money left in the public purse to provide for increases in social welfare payments for vulnerable groups, tax reductions for those at work or investment and improvements in public services on which people rely.

While the Deputy's question is valid, the talks are at a very sensitive stage and I do not propose to deal with the issue on the floor of the House, except to say fairness has been central to the negotiations in which the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, has been involved all the way along the line.

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