Results 14,741-14,760 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Looking back at these things, we are trying to find greater flexibility in the workplace and greater cost savings. Some 80% of the education budget is locked into pay and we cannot consider it in the cuts we are trying to make. Is this not a concession the Department could make, potentially saving €100 million? Before 2002, until ten years ago, it was part of the responsibilities of...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: The supervision and substitution allowance has been moved into core pay for new entrants.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: If over 95% of people are prepared to do it, we can fairly say they understand it is part of the job. In negotiating new contracts, I would not be so worried about the 5% or less given that the majority of the workforce accepts this is something that must be done. They are happy to do it. In the provision for the teachers coming in, the allowance and the extra hours they have decided to...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: What does Mr. Ó Foghlú mean when he says the Department reduced the categories?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Coming back to supervision at primary level, has anything changed if there was concern that teachers were not meeting the full 37 hours in the year? The Department has increased the number of hours for which teachers are available but perhaps they are not being called on to fill the hours.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Regarding the breakdown of the allowance, €118 million, does it amount to €50 million on primary supervision and the remainder on substitution at post-primary level?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: It is important to have the flexibility at the school level. In second level schools, is it a case of substitution when a colleague is absent? If a third-year teacher is absent, the students are put in the library and the teacher sits with them for that period of time. If a teacher signs up for the hours, has the number of hours been increased to 40 for new entrants?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Was the measure introduced in 2002?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: When it was introduced, teachers would voluntarily sign up to be available for an extra 37 hours in a year to get the allowance. For that they would make themselves available for duties such as yard supervision at a primary school during their lunchbreak on a given day. In a secondary school where a teacher's absence resulted in a free class, another teacher would come in to watch over the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Are both times supervised in secondary schools?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: I am curious to know what changed around that time. For many years it was seen as the job of a teacher that, where a colleague was sick, for example, another teacher would supervise the class, or a teacher provided yard supervision for, say, one lunchbreak every three weeks depending on the number of teachers. What was the change in circumstances that led teachers to think that supervision...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: We are talking about 41,500 teachers signing up for 37 hours of additional work, or roughly one hour a week per teacher. Has that work been called in? The Comptroller and Auditor General queried whether those hours are being used.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Does that mean that we have a big problem with teachers not turning up for work or not being available for work? These teachers are supervising and substituting for other teachers who are not present. If the full 37 hours per year are being used, why do we have 41,500 teachers? There seem to be many hours of absenteeism.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: We give money to schools to pay for people to come in to cover for teachers not being in the school.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: It is not really comparable because a teacher's job is supervision. It is not unusual for a teacher to sit in front of a class for a 45 minute period.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Someone still has to do his or her work or cover their workstation.
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: If they man a telephone or are working on a project, someone else must step in, and in most workplaces people do step in. If I told someone in the private sector that he or she might have to step into the shoes of someone else for an hour every week, their first thought would be to accept that cover was part of the job. Their second thought would be to question where that person is. I...
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: How are extra hours given when, for example, the teachers of that sixth class do not supervise?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: In most cases do we pay people to come in from outside to supervise those classes in primary schools?
- Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)
Eoghan Murphy: Do primary school teachers receive the allowance for signing up for the extra 37 hours?