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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 May 1981

Vol. 328 No. 11

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Teachers' Salary Increases.

23.

asked the Minister for Education whether teachers who retired on 31 August 1980 will benefit from the salary and related increases recently awarded to the teaching profession, other than those under the national understanding.

Under the terms of the superannuation schemes which apply to teachers their pensions have to be calculated in accordance with the scales of salary in force at the date of retirement. The revised teachers' salary scales based on the recommendations of the Review Body on Teachers' Pay came into operation with effect from 1 September 1980 and, therefore, cannot be included in the calculation of pension and gratuity in the case of teachers who retired on 31 August 1980.

Under the arrangement whereby the pensions of public servants are updated annually the teachers concerned will be given the benefit of those increased scales in their pensions with effect from 1 July 1981.

Can the Minister say how many teachers would have benefited in the current year if this pay award had been backdated for one day?

I doubt if I have that information here, but if the Deputy puts down a question I will get the relevant statistic for him.

Would the Minister not agree that the savings to his Department by this particular trick were comparatively slight, that they are resented by the teachers concerned and that he would have received a considerable amount of goodwill from the teaching profession, given the fact that the Review Body started their deliberations while these teachers were still teaching, had he backdated the award for an extra day?

I do not concede that what the Deputy referred to is a trick——

It was a device.

I do not think so. One must have some kind of date. When negotiations were proceeding there was no cognisance at all taken of those retiring. As I have said in my reply, the addition to these pensions will come into effect in two months' time.

Does the Minister not agree that it is unfortunate that teachers who have spent their lives teaching should have to wait from the end of August one year to the beginning of July the following year in order to benefit from what was the result of a review body's recommendation in respect of the level of salary? Would the Minister not make an exception, or take steps to especially recognise their long service and grant them the increases now or as soon as possible rather than go through the process of waiting until 1 July to grant these increases?

This question arises quite regularly. I receive representations on it from Deputies, not merely in the case of teachers. Many people dispute the suitability of the month of July as the changing month. As the Deputy is aware, there is involved in it a whole area of the public service and the position is as stated in my reply.

Is the Minister not aware that pensioners under the social welfare schemes enjoy increases under budgetary provisions, usually from 1 April? Is there not here unfortunate discrimination against civil service pensioners, particularly teachers, who must then wait until 1 July? Would the Minister not consider granting these increases at least from 1 April in line with old age pensioners and similar recipients?

No, 1 April is effective for the social welfare pensions but it is not effective in the public service.

Might I seek clarification of something the Minister has said? While we agree that the teachers concerned will have an increase in their pensions in two months' time, is it not the case that the percentage increase they will receive then will not be based on the new salary operational from 1 August or whenever it was introduced last year, but on the salary they had at the time they left the teaching service, the old salary, the reduced salary?

My reply would seem to indicate that the Deputy's interpretation is wrong. Under the arrangements whereby the pensions of public servants are updated annually the teachers concerned will be given the benefit of those increased scales in their pensions with effect from 1 July 1981. That is what it says here.

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