Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been made very clear to me that the discrimination within the two-tier pay system in schools is having a deeply unsettling effect on the teaching profession. Lower pay is driving a significant number of people away from the profession.

The two-tier pay system has now been in place since 2011, more than a decade, and must be removed. Teachers who entered the system since 2011 are paid at a lower rate than their colleagues for carrying out the same work. Understandably, people are fed up and out of patience. They deserve and want more than what they are getting.

We were told by the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Joe McHugh, a few years ago that he would move to resolve the issue quickly. The current Minister has now been in place for almost two years and the matter is still not resolved. I am asking the Minister to settle this once and for all because it is unfair. These teachers, especially secondary teachers, are highly qualified and have to give a lot of their time to become qualified. We are losing them. They are going out of the country and schools are having a problem retaining teachers.

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