Teaching pay fund not hit, says Cork ETB

The head of a Cork educational authority has insisted that both funding for teachers’ salaries and the body’s capital expenditure were not cut as a result of legal settlements it paid out over a number of years.

A whistleblower who had highlighted oversight issues at the former County Cork VEC disputed the statement, and said “cuts must have been made somewhere” to meet the costs.

Ted Owens, chief executive of Cork Education and Training Board, previously admitted schools and centres “suffered” when the body — formerly County Cork VEC — paid out €553,000 in legal costs and settlements over a four-year period.