Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The result of a ballot of members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, ASTI, is expected to be announced today. The ballot was held because of major issues surrounding teachers' pay as well as issues surrounding supervision and substitution duties. Despite some minor concessions on the Government's part, the deal put to teachers remains largely the same as that proposed before teachers went out on strike last October. The ASTI executive has recommended that its members should reject the deal on offer. If they do, industrial action will resume and schools will close again. As any parent will tell the Tánaiste, this will be very disruptive. As any student, particularly those in exam years, will tell her, it will also be very stressful.

Teachers have legitimate concerns about their pay and conditions. Their concerns are justifiably shared across the public sector following seven years of pay cuts, but the teaching profession in particular has been affected as it is the one area in which a large number of new recruits had to be employed over the past ten years because of demographic pressures. Teachers and the rest of our public sector workers want and deserve fair pay restoration. They are not looking for a pay increase, but pay restoration, that is, to be simply given back what was taken away.

The demands of teachers are not insurmountable but they remain unresolved because the Government has its head stuck firmly in the sand. The issue of pay equality, which was a central reason for industrial action in October has not been addressed in the slightest, but it must be addressed. New entrants - those who started teaching from January 2011 - start on a pay scale that is on average 10% less than their colleagues. The Government has no plan to address that situation. Worse still, there is no commitment to equal pay for equal work.

I am of the firm view that this issue must be resolved before the scheduled ending of the Lansdowne Road agreement. The clock is ticking and kicking the can down the road will not resolve the problem. Will the Tánaiste, on behalf of Government, today commit unequivocally to the principle of pay equality for teachers? Will she agree that the issue of pay equality - equal reward for equal effort - for post-2011 teachers must be addressed and confirm that it will be addressed before the scheduled ending of the Lansdowne Road agreement?

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