Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has said that there is "no more important area in which we can invest" than education, but his policy of fighting to maintain pay inequality at the core of this country's teaching profession is a funny way of showing it. Even with the TUI agreement, new teachers who are coming in are suffering a significant pay gap. Some of them are paid €6,000 or €7,000 less than the people beside whom they work and who do the same job. Even those with the so-called deal will be down more than €100,000 over the period of their careers.

They are also often in situations of having precarious, low-hour contracts, not full-time contracts, and are in very difficult circumstances. The most fundamental question for those considering going into teaching is whether the Government is committed to establishing pay equality or whether it wants pay inequality and a two-tier pay system indefinitely into the future.

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