asked the Minister for Education if he is aware that the cost of living has increased by 75 per cent. since 1938; that increases of pay of 30 per cent. have been made in most State services, including the allowances to Deputies, to meet that extra cost; if he will state why certain sections of national teachers secured only increases of from 10 per cent. to 20 per cent., under the same circumstances; and if he will review this position.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Teachers' Salaries.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative.
With regard to the second part I am informed that, while the percentage increases over and above the 1938 rates which have been granted to the various groups which are remunerated from State funds vary according to the group concerned and to the amount of the former rates of pay, it is correct to say that a large proportion of those so remunerated have received new rates representing an increase of 30 per cent. above the 1938 rates.
As to the third and fourth parts of the question, it would appear that the Deputy is referring to those highlyefficient unmarried men principal teachers of national schools who formed the subject of the questions addressed by him to me on the 26th ultimo. I must refer him to my replies to these questions to which I have nothing to add except that, in the case of men national teachers, comparisons between the 1938 and the new scales of pay and other grants must have regard to the fact that for the first time the new scales made special provision for married men teachers.
asked the Minister for Education if he is aware of any State service, outside the national teachers, under his control, where a person with higher qualifications and greater responsibility received less pay than one who is less qualified and who has lesser responsibility; and if he will make arrangements to adjust this anomaly in the cases of these national teachers in whose scales of pay it exists.
The special provision for married men which is a feature of the new scales for national teachers also appeared in the new scales for other classes of teachers, e.g., professors of preparatory colleges for the training of candidate teachers who are paid by my Department. As a result, it is possible for a married man professor in one of these colleges to receive a higher salary than the principal of the college in which he is serving. Such a position can arise where there are separate scales for women, single men and married men, and as I indicated in the course of my replies to the questions which the Deputy addressed to me on the 26th November last relative to the new scales for national teachers, I do not admit that any anomaly in the sense of an injustice or an inequality is thereby created. In the circumstances, I do not propose to make arrangements to alter the underlying principles of the new scales for national teachers.