Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan refuses to commit on teacher pay scales

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan has refused to commit to restoring pay to newly qualified teachers.

Teaching unions have been campaigning to reverse pay cuts imposed on all teachers who entered schools after 2011.

Primary- and second-level teaching organisations claim the reduced pay scales have introduced inequality into schools. Teachers are on different salaries based on when they qualified.

But Ms O’Sullivan has said the restoration of rates will not be a Labour party election promise. However, speaking to the Irish Examiner

, she added that she expects that the differing levels of pay would be raised as an issue in the future.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “I can say that I am sure it will feature in future discussions, but there is no point in me saying that I am going to fix it, because it would be part of a bigger discussion, obviously. It won’t be an election promise.”

The issue was one of the main complaints when the education minister attended the three teachers’ conferences this year.

Speaking about the 2011 cuts, she said: “That happened when times were really difficult and it was part of what was agreed at the time.

“There were some things that happened, at that time, that were very difficult decisions to be made.

“We are, to some extent, easing the burden on lower-paid people across the board, including with the teachers, with the unwinding of the FEMPI legislation. But it didn’t get changed in the Lansdowne Road agreement, that is a national agreement that was agreed by the majority of union members, even though the post-primary teaching unions didn’t sign up to it.

“I wouldn’t say that it will never change, because there will be future agreements, issues will be raised. I’m not saying it won’t be addressed again.

“I think it will come up in the future discussions, but, for the moment, it didn’t get changed in the context of what has been agreed. I can see that it is an issue that if there were more money around that it would be one of the ones that certainly would be considered,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms O’Sullivan said she hoped that all second-level teachers would accept the new Junior Cycle reform.

She said she did not want two curricula being taught across the country.

“I wouldn’t like that to happen; we are making every effort to make sure that it rolls out across all schools,” she said.

Although the TUI union have agreed to implement the new system, Junior Cycle reform was rejected by members of the ASTI.

She said: “I found it particularly disappointing when the vote didn’t go through in the ASTI, because their leadership have signed along with the rest of us.”