Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last November, the three teacher unions, namely, the INTO, TUI and ASTI, made a detailed submission to the Public Service Pay Commission on the emerging crisis in teaching.

There has been a sharp fall in the number of applications to teacher education courses, an increase in emigration among recently qualified teachers and difficulties in filling posts and employing substitute teachers. The submission to which I refer outlined how more than 3,500 persons with no qualifications worked in primary classrooms for 32,000 substitute days in 2016. No substitutes were claimed by schools for nearly 27,000 days and the situation has deteriorated since that submission was made in late 2017. The INTO president, John Boyle, said one of the consequences of pay inequality is serious teacher shortages here, while Irish teachers are employed abroad. He said in schools here "the erosion of young teachers' morale and the growth of discontent are real life impacts of indefensible, unjust and discriminatory pay rates". This morning, I received an email from a primary school teacher in St. Gabriel's in Ballyfermot complaining about this matter. It states:

Those who began teaching after February 2012 will earn over €100,000 less over a 40-year career than a teacher who began prior to 2011. To date a teacher who went to the profession in 2012 has lost out almost €30,000 ... Singling out new teachers is unfair, unjustified and increasingly unacceptable in a rapidly growing economy.

This should not be news to the Minister and yet in his amendment to the Fianna Fáil motion, he seems to be blinkered and in denial that this is actually happening. I printed off four or five articles from various newspapers, including The Irish Timesand other broadsheets, which alert society to the chronic shortage of teachers, to the crisis in substitution and to the really dramatic fall in the numbers of people applying for those posts. In his amendment to the Fianna Fáil motion, the Minister begins by recognising the vital role teachers play in Irish society. None of us would disagree with that. He said the Department of Education and Skills is now creating more new teacher posts than at any other period in the history of the State. My goodness, we must have had a really sorry history. The Minister is not acknowledging the reality of the situation. That is what Fianna Fáil's motion is attempting to do, albeit late in the day from the party that helped to introduce the FEMPI legislation. It is trying to get rid of it but the real attempt to get rid of FEMPI was made by the ASTI two years ago when it voted for strike action against pay inequality and led a brilliant campaign across the country for equal pay for equal work. Its name was dirt in the House. I do not know if there was another party apart from us who actually supported 100% the action it was willing to take. Deputy Coppinger is a member of the ASTI-----

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