Seanad debates

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Second Stage

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Fidelma Healy EamesFidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If it is over, the Minister should not hurt some over others. As we have all agreed, and the Minister agreed in the Dáil, a pension is a property right and the right to property is the second highest right in this land, after the right to life. How is this fair? The Minister should please assure our colleagues that their pension rights will be restored and give the date for that.

The overwhelming vote of members in the Teachers Union of Ireland, for example, not to accept the Lansdowne Road agreement is due in large measure to the fact that the agreement is utterly oblivious of teachers working casual hours. It is the worst job in the country. The Minister should listen to what I say. These people have had to spend up to six years training to be teachers, four years to get a basic degree and two years for a higher diploma, H. Dip. If some of those poor devils have only two classes a day that makes up ten or 12 hours a week, they cannot bank those and draw down social welfare for two or three days because the work carries across five days. Now, according to the Oireachtas Library and Research Service notes on this, if they earn up to €24,000 in casual pay, they will not qualify for any of these restoration measures. Is that true? If it is, the Minister is giving them the greatest kick in the tail. Approximately half of second level teachers under the age of 35 are in the unacceptable situation of being in part-time and or temporary employment. The Lansdowne Road agreement does not address this problem.

Lecturers in institutes of technology are on 18 to 20 hours a week. I was a lecturer in a teacher training college. We had a very high number of lecturing hours too but a good lecturer does three things: lecturing, which includes teaching and assessment; research; and connecting with the community, the town and the gown. If someone is teaching 20 hours a week with an average of four hours preparation per lecturing hour, they are incredible hours and are twice the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, average. Does the Minister want quality teaching and outcomes or to have the lecturers running around like headless chickens? The Minister should not damage the profession. That is what is happening. I am passionate about this because I know the price the country will pay if we do not keep our standards high. I would like to hear the Minister’s response and on Committee Stage, we will have an opportunity to tease this out further. I want the Minister to answer Senator Craughwell’s question on whether the Whip will be applied to this Bill.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.