Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Some people are very privileged and most of them acknowledge that privilege. There are many people in this House who owe their position to the work done by teachers across the education system. As I said, I am aware of the value the Minister attaches to education and his appreciation of the school he attended, which had a great showing in the recent survey of the numbers of pupils going on to further education from schools throughout the State. A large number of schools in Dublin 7 and Dublin 15 also performed strongly, which is an enormous source of pride to me. I am very interested in the Minister's thinking on this.

The industrial relations strategy the Minister is pursuing is not a good one and he should rethink it. As I said, the efforts shown by the leadership and members of the teacher unions through the course of the crisis deserve recognition. There should be recognition, too, of the genuine difficulties facing new entrants to teaching, who include both young people and mature people who transferred from other careers to become teachers. Many of us owe much of our own advancement in life to the teachers who guided us. In the case of Members of the Oireachtas, that advancement has led to our having the privilege to work in this House. Why has the Minister chosen this particular approach to the people who made such a tremendous contribution to Irish society? We should remember, in addition, that in recent years, teachers have had to manage increasing numbers of non-national children whose home language is not English. Teachers took the view that every child in every school should be a welcome child. That tremendous achievement is evident in towns and villages throughout the country, in large schools and small schools. Will the Minister pause to reflect on what he expects to achieve by this approach?

The recent Exchequer returns for November, the most important month of the year for tax receipts, were extremely strong by any standards. Those results afford the Minister capacity to address issues. Will he consider, in a spirit of collective bargaining and in the broadest community interest, appointing a mediator and bringing people together to discuss this issue? I accept that he cannot pay out on everything at once and that he must make a budget which will work. However, the Exchequer returns are far better than expected and the outlook to 2020, because of the continuing return of people to employment, has improved. As such, he has capacity to address particular situations. Earlier this week, I raised with him the serious difficulties for people currently undertaking master's degrees and doctorates. Some of these people, having spent a lot of money and devoted additional years to study, will go on to work in institutes of technology, for example, and find the entry rate of pay is lower than that for teachers in second level schools or even primary schools.

6 o’clock

There are issues that need to be addressed if the Minister wants to prevent people being forced into other areas where they will not be able to apply their skills in education as they may have wanted or going abroad to work. Many of these people will get a job in places that will not allow them to live at home, rent free. They may have to move to the next town or to a city. Rents are a big problem for anyone on a starting salary. If possible before Report Stage I would like the Minister, who is also responsible for relationships with the trade unions, to make arrangements for further conversations with the whole trade union movement.

Many in the public service have accepted the arrangement and if it is changed for one it must be changed for all. The recent Exchequer returns show there is room for manoeuvre which, instead of damaging the economy, would inject more wages over time into it. That is one of the growth mechanisms it needs in order to support people who want to buy a house and to commit to a 30 or 35 year mortgage. The Minister would then be doing a kind of social building, if he could envisage a change that would allow the country to prosper more. This would help not just those in the public sector but the overall economy. Notwithstanding that the budget has to be in early October, the November figures show a change. It would be wise if the Minister were to study those figures and to give consideration to a format of settlement of this issue that would allow the country to advance.

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