Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is not very helpful to engage in a disingenuous response to a straightforward question about increments. We all know that there are increments. There have always been increments in the public sector and people move up the pay scale. The issue is that there are two different pay scales. In fact, there are three different pay scales for people who have exactly the same training and experience. The Minister should not try to blur the issue with an untruth. The question is why teachers with the same experience and, possibly, who are the same age as their counterparts are on a different pay scale. Teachers earn different amounts for doing the same job, working in the same schools and teaching the same classes. Some teachers get between €6,000 and €8,000 less for doing the same job. That is just straightforward discrimination. Over their lifetimes, the difference could be as much as €200,000 - the cost of a house. How can the Minister stand over that discrimination? Will he commit to end the discrimination and inequality for teachers?

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