Pay parity for teachers becoming a political hot potato before the budget

Suddenly the Fine Gael-led Government has been handed a burning political hot potato as the summer draws to a close and schools due to reopen.

Super junior minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor’s pronouncement that teachers should get equal pay may have been candid, but the bungling remarks jolted colleagues.

While the minister was essentially cornered into addressing the thorny issue at a media event when asked about equal pay for her own role at Cabinet, her remarks on pay parity for teachers has put her colleague and senior Education Minister Richard Bruton, and now the Government, in an awkward and uncomfortable position.