Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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540. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will clarify a matter in relation to a teacher's degree allowance and salary (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45228/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Under an agreement reached between my Department and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) in 2014, it was agreed that three grades of staff would be recognised as appropriate for employment in the Youthreach sector i.e. Teacher, Youthreach Resource Person and Youthreach Co-ordinator. As an element of this, it was agreed that Tutors who were employed in Youthreach would have their posts converted to either Teacher or Youthreach Resource Person. From the date of conversion, the person would be subject to the normal terms and conditions of employment of their new grade in terms of salary, working hours etc.

It was a matter for each ETB to determine whether a particular tutor would be deemed to be a qualified teacher on conversion of their post. Where a Tutor post was converted to a qualified Teacher post, the Teacher would be entitled to incremental progression on the Teachers' Common Basic Scale. This represents a significant benefit to the individual in the long-term as Tutors did not generally have access to an incremental salary scale.

Each ETB implemented the conversion process in respect of Youthreach Tutors in its employment and notified its staff of their new grade. Future recruitment to Youthreach will be to Teacher or Youthreach Resource person posts.

Any query in relation to this conversion process should be addressed to Waterford Wexford ETB.