Questions facing the ministerial roadshow

HERE are some of the questions that I would like Education Minister Noel Dempsey to answer at his ‘roadshow’ meetings with teachers: Can he justify the fact that teachers at the lower end of the longest salary scale earn less per hour for teaching students than the money he is offering for supervising the same students?

Where is the professionalism in teachers accepting half the pay of unqualified personnel to fulfil the same function?

Why should teachers of more than five years' experience do 90 minutes overtime at a rate of pay that is beneath their basic hourly rate?

Why should they agree to be on-call for free? What other workers are expected to do this?

Why should they betray their retired colleagues by accepting this payment for work which they carried out for free over 40 years, while they receive nothing in their pensions from this deal?

In what other job is a pregnant woman on maternity leave expected to 'work back' the hours missed in order to qualify for pension entitlements/payment?

Assuming that those who might accept the deal on an 'opt-in, opt-out' basis would be legally classified as 'part-time/temporary' employees for the purposes of this contract, is it not illegal to treat them differently in terms of pension rights accruing to the contracts?

The minister's problem with voluntary supervision and substitution is one of his own making. Had the previous government (of which he was a cabinet member) paid them the salary increase they sought, the question of paying for this voluntary work would never have arisen. Why will he not simply grant them the pay increase they deserve? We know that he has the money Fergus Finlay's column in the Irish Examiner last week proved this.

Tim Nelligan,

122, Rose Hill,

Wicklow.