Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This will not take too much time. I thank my colleagues and the Ministers for their contributions. I am reminded of a little bit of history. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, spoke about the responsible attitude we are taking and I welcome his appreciation of that. Like the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, I have very strong memories of some of the original FEMPI legislation passing through the House. That same responsible attitude we are demonstrating today was not always in evidence from the Opposition side. Now that they are in government, I am glad they have changed that particular attitude.

Deputy Mattie McGrath said he probably voted for it, but he actually forgets, because he voted for it before he voted against it. On one particular occasion that I will never forget, I was the intermediary between the then Minister, the late Brian Lenihan, and him. I negotiated that Brian Lenihan would introduce a 90% bankers' bonus tax in the legislation to keep Deputy Mattie McGrath on board. However, in the hour or two between Second Stage, and Report and Final Stages, Deputy Mattie McGrath had changed his vote.

Those were difficult times, but they were more difficult for the people affected by the FEMPI legislation, as all sides have acknowledged. Many people put up with considerable hardship at the time. I will never forget the emails and other communication I received at that time from public servants and others who were taking a big hit as the economy went into a tailspin. There was a job to be done to get the economy back on an even keel. I am so glad that I stood with our Minister for Finance at the time, Brian Lenihan, and my leader at the time, Brian Cowen, in implementing really difficult legislation. It is a wonderful privilege and honour to be in Dáil Éireann as we see this FEMPI legislation being unwound and the benefits going back to those in the public sector. Fianna Fáil is happy to do that.

I do not intend to delay, but, as education spokesperson, I wish to set out our position on newly qualified teachers in particular. It is really important that Government gets the message that this is a running sore in the education sector. As only Members from the centre parties are left in the Chamber - the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, spoke about this - we really need to ensure that the newly qualified people are looked after. They are looking to other areas in the political spectrum for answers, which is not necessary. I believe the centre parties should be offering this. It was a huge disappointment to me that the pay talks were able to go through without the issue of newly qualified people being dealt with. It was very unwise of the negotiators to do that. However, that is the pay agreement we are left with and we have to implement it. I am sure the Minister will talk about this. The pay agreement makes provision for work to be done in respect of those newly qualified people. It is urgent to do that and to get resolution.

As an Opposition party, we cannot propose financial changes to the legislation. However, Deputy Calleary has proposed amendments which will require the Minister to carry out a review to find out what can be done as quickly as possible. I want to make clear that Fianna Fáil is committed to equalising the pay scales as soon as we can do that. It should not take a huge amount of time. That is a matter for budgets and for negotiations. We are committed to doing that because it is the right thing to do.

It is causing division and dissent in classrooms. It is causing division beyond classrooms in wider society as people feel they are on one side of a divide. It feeds into a radical ideology in politics which is wrong and unfortunate. It also a major contributor to the teacher shortage we have. The perception and the reality is that newly qualified teachers are not getting paid properly. The current teacher shortage is the thing that will pull the rug from under the plans of the Minister, Deputy Bruton, in the school sector. He cannot do anything in education without teachers. This is an aspect that needs to be addressed and we urge the Government to do that.

We will be supporting the Bill. I do not know how anybody could vote against the pay rises proposed. I know Deputy Calleary's amendments will help the situation. Our political commitment on this remains. It is a strong commitment to equalise those scales and do something that is right, fair and just.

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