Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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360. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will assign staff within the payroll division of her Department to examine the anomaly whereby a small cohort of primary school teachers are not paid the honours allowance in their salary (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3155/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department implemented the outcome of the review of allowances and premium payments (September 2012) by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which included that certain allowances were no longer payable to many new public service entrants including new entrant teachers. Circular 8 of 2013 outlines the effect of this review on teachers and, in common with a number of job-role based allowances, sanction for payment to new beneficiaries was withdrawn from 1st February 2012 under the terms of the Circular.

Amendments to the existing allowances give rise to cost issues and can impact on other sectors or categories of public. Any such amendments, such as those you refer to in your question, can therefore only be achieved through engagement and collective bargaining agreements between the Government and the public service unions.

Following such engagement with the unions representing teachers, the value of the honours primary degree qualification allowance was added to the pay scale of all new entrant teachers with effect from 2018. The issue you raised was not included in that agreement.

In addition, as part of the existing national pay agreement, Building Momentum, a Sectoral Bargaining Fund was established to deal with outstanding adjudications, commitments, recommendations, awards and claims within the Exchequer funding limit in place. It was open to the union representing the primary sector to use this process to explore resolving this matter but this was not done.