‘Time for Government to pay debt’ to teachers

Teacher unions have welcomed the highlighting of unequal pay by Mary Mitchell O’Connor, even if her view is not supported by others at Cabinet.

The union, to which the higher education minister was affiliated, said teachers have suffered most because of the €500m saved by taxpayers since pay for new entrants to the public service was cut from 2011.

Of the largest teachers’ union, more than 7,000 of the 36,000 Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) members in the Republic are paid less than longer-serving colleagues at the same stage in their careers.