Young teachers could lose more than €100,000 in pay differentials over 40 years, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has told the Dáil.
In particular, he said, removing the qualifications allowance in 2012 had a devastating impact on teachers’ pay, with the honours primary degree allowance of close on €5,000 being taken out in one fell swoop. The teachers’ unions had brought real issues to people’s attention, he said.
“We need to recruit the brightest and best into the public service,” Mr Martin added. “In that regard, inequality is not acceptable.”
About 30,000 gardaí and second-level teachers may have financial sanctions imposed on them by the Government, including a loss of incremental pay rises, from the end of the week in a dispute over the Lansdowne Road agreement.
In the Dáil, Mr Martin said serious and important issues were emerging in the public sector and public service which had the potential to sap morale, hamper recruitment efforts and perpetuate inequality in the treatment of public servants as regards pay.
He said newly qualified gardaí started on a salary of about €23,000 and it was impossible for them to afford to pay rent or mortgages.
Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, who was replying to Opposition Leaders' Questions, said the Government was committed to the establishment of a commission to examine pay levels across the public service.
The background work was being done and it was intended to move ahead with it in the coming months.
She said the Government remained willing and available to engage with the Garda Representative Association in the coming days.
“We want to take every possible initiative to come to an agreement such that people will remain within the Lansdowne Road agreement,” she added. “Other unions have agreed to stay with it.”
Ms Fitzgerald said Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton had invited the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland to meet him.
“We want to avoid an increment freeze and every opportunity will be taken to deal with the outstanding issues,” she added.
Ms Fitzgerald said very difficult decisions had been taken in recent years on entry pay levels and many people, including gardaí and teachers, were affected by them. They were subject to the same public service pay reductions as all other public servants.
