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

Gabhaim buíochas le gach duine atá ag tabhairt tacaíocht don rún seo. Tá siad ag taispeáint an taithí atá acu ar an bhfadhb seo óna bheith i dteagmháil le múinteoirí agus é sin i ngach Dáilcheantair. Tá an Twitter hashtag #TrasnaNadTonnta ag cur soiléireachta orthu siúd atá thar lear agus atá Gaeilge acu. Tá a fhios againn go bhfuil a lán Gaeilgeoirí ag obair san UAE, i Bahrain agus i dtíortha eile mar sin. Táimid ag iarraidh a rá leo sa rún seo go bhfuil fiúntas leo agus gurbh fhearr linne dá mbeadh siad anseo ag múineadh in Éirinn agus gur féidir linn é sin a dhéanamh má deir an tAire leo go mbeidh pá cothrom acu anseo, go bhfuil fiúntas ag baint leis an bproifisiún seo agus go bhfuil meas ag an bpobal agus ag an Rialtas orthu.

I thank everybody for their support for the motion. Many people have raised the issue and it has received support from all sides of the House except the Fine Gael Party. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae really summed up the issue of the professional master of education, PME, in terms of the costs associated with it, not only fees but also travel costs to college and to work experience and accommodation costs. If we listened to what the Minister said, he completely agreed with us on the PME. It is not organised and it is a disaster. He does not know what teachers he will have next September and he has admitted that. It is unsatisfactory. We must look at it again. We cannot simply be slaves to the third level lobby on this issue, and I say this with the utmost respect for it. As the leader of my party said this morning, postgraduate courses in general are becoming a cash cow for colleges, understandably in some ways because of the lack of funding from central government, but this has to end. We know there are other ways for teachers to qualify and the Minister needs to accelerate them and take his head out of the sand.

The unhinged rant of Deputy Mattie McGrath was unfair and unwarranted in terms of people in the Gallery. It was wrong. The trade union leaders I meet are extremely strong advocates. They meet every party and have robust exchanges with them on behalf of their members on this issue. They certainly challenge me and I am sure they challenge the Minister. I compliment the unions on the work they did last year in bringing the newly-qualified teachers 50% of the way. The Minister was in Cabinet when that happened. For myself, I put on significant public pressure in this regard, as did my party and other colleagues throughout the House. I worked with the unions at that time and saw not only their determination but the determination of their members and how serious were the young and older professional people who wanted to make right. It is about time the Minister actually said he believes in pay equality and works towards it because everybody agrees with it.

5 o’clock

I compliment Deputy Calleary on his work on the public pay Bill. There was some talk about that before Christmas but the bottom line is because of what Fianna Fáil put forward, the Government must come back with a report on this, more than likely before the teacher conferences. That will help to bring the debate forward.

Another instructive signal in the debate was that among all the Opposition, and certainly in my party, we were fighting for speaking slots. People were looking for a minute to speak on it as they are passionate about the topic. That includes the Rural Independent Group, Sinn Féin, the left and everybody else, and Fianna Fáil in particular. There were two speakers from the Fine Gael Party struggling to fill the time they had. That, coming from the largest party in the House, says a lot about how it views this problem and the priority attached to it. Why were there so few Fine Gael and Government speakers on the matter? Let us be honest, this is what teachers and principals are talking to us about. It is crucial for the country. The foundation of our economy, society and nation is in education. It got us up the ladder individually and as a country. We must take it seriously.

Nobody has queried any of the solutions I proposed. The only criticism I received, mentioned by the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and put around the media this morning, was that it was misleading people to say there were only six physics graduates. That figure is reported in The Irish Times. Some have suggested there are fewer but the ministerial response was that there were 21 such graduates. Everybody agrees the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, teacher trainees is at a crisis level. The Government is splitting hairs over figures when it does not know them; if it did, the figures would be in the amendment. The truth is the Government does not know the figures or have any control over them. It is part of the problem.

The Government should work with the unions, the education partners and management bodies. There are temporary solutions but there should be a review. The Ministers should work hard with their Government colleagues and we will support them every step of the way if they decide to advocate for pay equality. I know the unions will support the Minister if that happens as well. I am sure the unions will continue to challenge all of us, as I will challenge the Minister on the matter until it is resolved.

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