Teachers threaten industrial action if allowances cut

Primary, secondary and third level teachers are threatening industrial action if the Government breaches pay agreements made in the Croke Park Agreement.

Three teachers unions - the TUI, the INTO and the ASTI - are holding their annual conferences this week. The possibility of cuts to teachers' salaries, allowances and resources is topping the agenda at all three events.

It is understood the Government is reviewing some allowances given to teachers after it emerged that teachers' allowances are costing the State more than €500m each year.

Some of the allowances include payments for teaching in a Gaeltacht area and for doing supervision yard duties.

Speaking to reporters at the INTO conference in Killarney, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said he could not say whether some of the allowances might be cut.

"I'm not going to pre-empt what the discussions will be," the Minister said.

The TUI - which is holding its annual conference in Wexford - said the pay and conditions of second and third level teachers had been eroded in recent years.

The union said the standard of the education system was now under severe threat and could not be funded through cuts to the salaries of its members.

TUI President Bernie Ruane said the Government would face the wrath of teachers if it breached the Croke Park Agreement by removing allowances.

"TUI will not stand for another pay cut," she said. "Our allowances are part of our pay. They are not extra. If our pay is touched again, we will not stand idly by."

Earlier, Minister Quinn urged parents living in rural areas not be worried about their children's education after he told the INTO conference in Kerry this morning that small schools could not be immune from budget cuts.

"I can understand the concerns (of parents)…but we will sit down and have a dialogue about how we can ensure that children get what they're constitutionally entitled to, which is a primary-school education," he said.