Teachers could have €500m in allowances cut
The cost of various allowances paid last year to primary and second-level teachers – except for those at schools run by Vocational Education Committees (VECs) – has been estimated by the Irish Examiner at more than €420m last year, based on Department of Education figures.
When an estimated €96m is added for 240 VEC schools, the total cost is well above €515m, or almost one-seventh of the state’s €3.8bn pay bill for 60,000 teachers in the 2008/09 school year.
The sum includes various allowances for academic qualifications, extra duties at school, and a range of payments which have been available for decades. The payments – along with teachers’ salaries which are the same to primary and second-level – have increased by 56% in the last eight years under social partnership and benchmarking pay deals, partially in return for some changes to work practices.
The amount paid out by the Department of Education and VECs is likely to be at least €20m lower for this school year, during which a ban has been placed onappointing teachers to vacant management posts below deputy principal grade.
Last year, 9,372 primary and 8,350 non-VEC second-level teachers were paid almost €93.5m for such jobs, taking responsibility for activities ranging from running adult education services to setting policies on attendance and behaviour or special needs education.
Around €60m of the half a billion euro total was paid in allowances to principals of the country’s 4,000 primary and second-level schools last year. While second-level principals do not have to teach classes, around two-thirds of primary schools are run by teaching principals.
Primary principals were one of the few public service groups recommended for a pay increase in the second benchmarking report in January 2008, but those rises have not since been paid out.
While many teacher allowances might be considered as generous, unions have argued for many years that their members take longer than most public servants to reach the top salary level, which is reached after 20 to 25 years of service.
Sheila Nunan, incoming general secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), said allowances paid in teaching were mostly for additional work and were an integral part of salaries.
“Nobody could consider responsibility allowances to be particularly generous, given the work that attaches to them. And while higher-paid public servants have been paid their benchmarking awards, the Government has reneged on its obligations to principal teachers,” she said.
Aside from allowances paid for management roles, every teacher is paid an allowance in respect of their qualifications, above their teaching salaries which range from €32,599 to €63,361. The qualifications allowances range from €622 for a primary degree to almost €6,500 for teachers with a doctorate degree, with the total cost standing at more than €225m last year.
Almost half of the country’s 35,000 primary teachers received €5,177 last year for an honours teaching degree, while more than 8,000 second-level teachers claimed more than €6,000 for getting honours in both their basic degrees and their teaching qualifications.
The figures supplied by the Department of Education show that a significant number of principals have not claimed the extra payment to which they are entitled since 2006 for being secretary to their schools’ boards of management.
The principals of just 45% of the 500 second-level schools for which figures were available received the payment worth between €551 and €1,655 a year, depending on the school’s size. Only 2,406, or less than three-quarters, of primary principals have claimed the payment.
A range of miscellaneous allowances adding up to more than €18m was also paid last year, of which €10.5m was received by more than 4,300 teachers in primary and non-VEC second level schools. The payments of just under €2,500 each were for being at least 10 years at the top of the salary scale, having more than 35 years of service.
An allowance of €115 for each dependent child of almost 2,700 teachers serving since before 1980 cost the Department of Education more than €300,000 last year, while 173 comprehensive school staff teaching since before 1987 received €2,601 each at a cost of €450,000.
Asked about the possibility of cutting teachers allowances instead of basic salaries a week ago, before the collapse of the pay talks between the Government and unions, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe told the Irish Examiner that while pay cuts might be short-term, efficiencies and flexibility could bring longer term benefits.
However, with cuts to teachers’ and other public servants’ pay now a certainty in Wednesday’s budget, it is some of these allowances which could come under the axe.
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