Written answers

Tuesday, 8 November 2022

Department of Education and Skills

Public Sector Pay

Photo of Mairead FarrellMairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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504. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views in relation to Haddington Road hours (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54601/22]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Croke Park Agreement (CPA) hours are part of wider productivity measures introduced under the Public Service Agreements. With regard to categories of public servants to which they apply, in terms of schools, the CPA hours are 33 additional hours a year at post primary (36 hours at primary) worked by teachers. I understand that CPA hours may also apply to certain grades in Third Level Education, but that sector now falls under the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

In schools, a central purpose of the CPA hours is to provide for certain essential activities such as staff meetings, parent-teacher meetings, school planning, subject planning and mandated Continuous Professional Development to take place without reducing tuition time. Before the CPA hours were introduced, these activities ate into tuition time. This meant that schools closed for full days or half days in order to carry them out, causing interruption to tuition and significant inconvenience for parents, as well as childcare costs – particularly for primary parents. While the Department and school authorities view the use of these hours as vital in providing delivery of education the specific use of the hours has been reviewed and amended in agreement with teacher unions over time.

The Haddington Road Agreement (HRA) hours were considered by the parties to the current public service pay agreement, Building Momentum, to be an outstanding matter to be resolved, and in this context, the Independent Hours Body, chaired by Kevin Mulvey was established to examine issues arising from the HRA hours. There is currently no plan to review CPA Hours in a similar way and any proposal to do so would need to be part of future national pay agreement negotiations.

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