Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Hoey and Gavan, and Senator Black in her absence, for raising this important issue. I genuinely appreciate the opportunity it gives me to update them, the Seanad and, most importantly, the tutors, on the matters the Senators have raised.

As we all know, more than 3,300 adult education tutors are employed across our 16 education and training boards, ETBs. I agree they do incredibly good work. I have met many of them across the country, some of whom I have met in Leinster House and in my Department. There is no specific public sector grade of adult education tutor. Tutors are paid on an hourly-rate basis and generally at the unqualified teacher rate. That is where the frustration arises and the nub of this dispute centres on the need to have a public sector grade and to move beyond the hourly-rate basis generally paid at the unqualified teacher rate. The published rate for tutors dates from November 2013, and they are outside the national pay agreements. However, as Senators are aware, the rates are currently being reviewed.

The factual position is that a joint proposal has been prepared by my Department and the Department of Education. The reason for the Department of Education's involvement is that it still retains regulatory responsibility for the ETB sector. In that document, we have proposed the establishment of a grade of further education and training, FET, adult education tutor and that this would be formally established with a standardised pay scale aligned with the Youthreach resource person's scale. This grade will apply to staff employed in ETBs to deliver FET programmes who are currently employed under a variety of terms and conditions. We shared broad details of this proposal with union representatives in October 2022, and we acknowledged the need for further engagement to agree a final approach. Discussions on the details of the formal offer are ongoing with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

I want to be clear to Senator Gavan. I would love to be able to say we will have an answer on this date or that date. What I can tell the Senator, in all sincerity, is that I acknowledge this is going on longer than it should. I acknowledge there is huge frustration among adult tutors across the country, and I would like to see this brought to a conclusion quickly. I am personally engaging with the matter at the most senior levels possible to try to quickly bring this to a conclusion.

I have genuinely placed an unrelenting focus on the issue of adult literacy. We now have a Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It is not acceptable that we live in a country where one in eight of us cannot read, one in six of us struggle to read a bill and half of us do not possess the necessary digital skills to thrive in society. To address that challenge, to get to where we want to get to, the people who will be crucial to doing that are these tutors. It is not acceptable to me, my Department or the Department of Education that they would continue to exist in a reality where they are employed under a variety of terms and conditions. That is why we have worked intensively to put forward a new grade, namely, FET-adult education tutor, that would have a standardised pay scale aligned with the Youthreach resource person's scale.When this was shared with the unions in October, we made it clear we had to engage. I accept it is now almost March but we are intensively engaging with a view to trying to bring this to a conclusion as quickly as possible. I am very happy to keep both Senators directly updated on this matter and to engage further with the union on this issue.