Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil will fully support the Bill. It is an essential element of the financial housekeeping that must be concluded by the Oireachtas within the calendar year. The passing of the Bill will authorise in law all of the expenditure undertaken in 2021 on the basis of the Estimates voted through by the Dáil during the year. The passage of the Bill will also ensure payments funded from voted expenditure in 2021, such as the housing assistance payment, jobseeker's allowance, disability allowance and the non-contributory State pension. We also have nurses' pay, teachers' pay and all of the other pay and pension funded from voted money that can continue to be funded throughout 2022.

I will use the remainder of my time to reference some of the outliers that remain. The past 18 months have recalibrated how we see front-line workers. Now the person working in the supermarket is seen very much in an heroic aspect. Prior to the pandemic perhaps we would have considered their role quite apart from someone in the fire service or the Garda. They have been very much on the front line throughout the pandemic. It is the same for teachers and those in the early childcare sector. Many people have been cogs in a massive wheel keeping our country functioning during a time of crisis.

As we negotiate our way through Covid, pass the Bill and look at maintaining pay levels for our public servants, there are a few issues we need to examine. We had a good announcement recently by the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, that fourth year student nurses are to receive a 12.5% pay increase for their hospital placement. This is good and right. They are falling into line and helping us through a crisis period. There is also the two-tier pay system in the teaching profession for entrants to the profession after 2011. On average, they earn €4,000 less per annum than colleagues who entered prior to 2011. I was a teacher until the general election. It was wrong that the teacher across the corridor from me was earning on average €4,000 less per annum. Cumulatively across her career if this is not rectified there will be a discrepancy of income of approximately €100,000.

That is wrong, given that we are doing the same job and lifting the same load every day. I know talks are under way to advance this but it needs to be a major priority to wrap up all of that in 2022.

The same applies to the early childcare sector where talks are ongoing and there is positivity, I believe, in that regard. This is also something we need to look at because I spent a number of years in Mary Immaculate College training to be teacher. The lecture hall beside me had people doing early childhood studies. There were so much overlap in the training modules that we are doing that we just ended up going down different career paths, that is, primary school teaching versus the early childhood sector. What we take home in pay cheques, that is, teachers versus those in crèches and preschools, is incomparable. Once and for all, we need to acknowledge the highly skilled and valued work of people in the early years sector. I know that efforts are being made by Government, but in 2022 when we all make new year resolutions, this should be the year that we look at those who fell into the front line, who kept as buoyant and who kept the country upright during the Covid-19 pandemic, and do the right thing by their salary and pay conditions.

Overall, the Bill will not be the most exciting business to go through the Dáil this week but it is necessary. It is functional and will allow all of the payment streams from Government to continue without too much kerfuffle and for that reason I imagine it will pass here without too much debate or dissent. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Minister.

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