Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the urgent need to regularise the contracts of adult education tutors employed by education and training boards, ETBs, and the establishment of a salary scale that accounts for their years of service. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, is in the Chamber. He will know I have raised the matter with him and submitted parliamentary questions many times. There are approximately 2,500 full-time adult education tutors. That is what we are talking about. They are employed by ETBs across the country. Different rates are paid to tutors in different places. For example, in Donegal adult education tutors are paid less than those in the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim education and training board, MSLETB. In Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim, tutors are paid what is known as the unregistered teacher rate, which is also paid by some other ETBs. Many of these tutors are fully qualified teachers and are registered with the Teaching Council but are being paid an unregistered rate. By far the biggest issue is that their hours are capped at 22 hours of class contact time per week. They are not paid for any preparation, research or work they do to prepare lesson plans etc. They get nothing for that work. Their salary is based on an unregistered teacher's salary and capped at 22 hours per week.

However, that is not the end of it. Adult education tutors do not get paid for the summer months or at the term breaks at Christmas or Easter. In fact, adult education tutors who protested outside Leinster House yesterday were on mid-term break. They all had to sign on for jobseeker's allowance for the week, as they have to do for most of the summer, Christmas and Easter. That is really unfair. They deserve a proper contract of employment. One tutor I spoke to last autumn told me it took several weeks to organise the jobseeker's allowance. He got it, but when he went back to work at the beginning of September it was almost the end of October before he got paid. In the meantime, he had to pay all his bills, including his electricity bill and his mortgage. He also needed to put petrol in his car to go to work. That is just one example but it is typical of the many.

In March 2020, almost three years ago, the Labour Court recommended that the Department of Education make the tutors an offer. Last July, tutors were promised that the proposal would be on the table by the end of September and almost five months later, there has been no word. Those tutors have waited and waited. They have uncertainty about hours and annual income, which has a huge impact on all of their lives. I ask the Tánaiste to use his influence in any way he can to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.

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