Pay parity for teachers will cost €70m

Restoring full pay parity for teachers and other education staff would add up to €70m — or less than 1% — to Education Minister Richard Bruton’s annual budget.

More than 6,000 teachers have been employed since 2011 on reduced pay scales, an issue around which the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) is planning six more strikes up to December 7 in pursuit of equal pay for equal work, the next of them scheduled for Tuesday.

The union’s separate industrial action, of withdrawing from supervision and substitution work, was the priority in yesterday’s talks with the department, with the hope of averting more than 500 schools having to stay closed after this week’s mid-term break.