Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on equal pay scales for teachers. [40367/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As a consequence of the financial crisis, there was a need to enact a number of measures to reduce public expenditure so as to stabilise the country's public finances. These included pay reductions since 2010 and also reductions to the pay of new entrant public servants (including teachers) since 2011. Collective agreements reached between the Government and the public service unions provided vital industrial peace during this very difficult period for the State.

Equality and fairness are at the heart of everything this Government is trying to do, particularly in the area of education where I am especially focused on creating better opportunities for people from disadvantaged areas in our education system. Indeed, the recent Budget secured funding to deliver on a wide range of measures to support this objective. 

The Haddington Road/Lansdowne Road Agreement has allowed a programme of restoration to start. I have used this to negotiate substantial improvements in pay for new teachers. The agreement reached with TUI and INTO will see pay rises of between 15-22% (between €4600 and €6700) for new entrant teachers.  

In education, there is a well-established increment system. Teachers are not paid equally. For example, the pay scale for teachers appointed prior to 2011 ranges from €32,009 to €60,155 depending on the date that the individual began teaching. Part of the negotiation to date has secured a convergence of the scales of recruits at different periods. Any further negotiation on new entrant pay cannot focus on just one sector. A broader assessment of pay and new entrant pay will be informed by the analysis of the Public Service Pay Commission. 

The pay increases for new teachers can also be available to ASTI members under the proposals which resulted from recent discussions. The ASTI Central Executive Committee took a decision to put the outcome of the recent talks process to a ballot of members with a recommendation to reject.  The ASTI’s leadership have taken a view on the proposals.  It is now over to the members to form their view.  

There are immediate undoubted benefits for individual ASTI members in accepting the proposals, including these pay increases for new teachers.  They will have to weigh those up for themselves. Those benefits are only available to ASTI members if they vote to accept. The choice for ASTI members to consider is whether to accept the immediate benefits on offer and participate with the other unions in a further process of engagement or forego those immediate benefits in favour of further industrial action.  It is for the ASTI leadership to explain its strategy in respect of the latter approach.