asked the Minister for Education if he will make a statement on the present position of the secondary school teachers' strike and on the prospect of an early settlement.
33.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Secondary Teachers' Strike.
32.
asked the Minister for Education what is the latest position regarding the secondary teachers' dispute.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together. I would refer the Deputies to the statement published in the daily papers on Tuesday last on behalf of my Department which with your permission, a Cheann Chomhairle, I propose to place in the records of the House.
Discussions between the ASTI and myself began here in Leinster House at 2.00 p.m. today. They are proceeding and I would request Deputies to refrain from any comment on this matter which might in any way hinder a satisfactory settlement.
Following is the statement:—
SECONDARY TEACHERS' STRIKE.
In view of incorrect allegations in relation to the Secondary Teachers' Strike which have been contained in recent statements and in letters to the public press, the Minister for Education feels it necessary to furnish the following further facts, particularly to parents whose children are being deprived of their secondary education:
(1) The scales of remuneration published by the Department in the Sunday Newspapers on the 2nd of this month were in every detail the same as those contained in the terms of the official offer as supplied by the ASTI to its members. They show that the increase in remuneration to probationer teachers i.e. those at the minimum, would be over £4 10s per week in the case of women and single men and over £8 10s per week in the case of married men. The increase would be over £6 and £6 10s per week respectively at the maximum. The scales also show that a woman or single man at the maximum would be earning £35 per week and that a married man's remuneration would exceed £42 per week.
(2) All talk of loss of money by any teacher is entirely without foundation. Persons who speak of £1,852 as being the present salary of a married man and say that the offer is only £1,825 know quite well that £1,825 is merely the maximum of the common scale and that it carries with it an additional £50 for a degree, £25 for the Higher Diploma in Education and £300 for definable responsibility. The last sum, because of the way in which the calculation of responsibility was heavily weighted in respect of secondary schools, is payable to every secondary teacher who accepts responsibility which under general terms will be primarily a matter for determination between him and the Secondary School Manager who is his employer. Incidentally, the total remuneration of £2,200 would be all pensionable as against the fact that only £1,652 of the existing salary of £1,852 is pensionable.
(3) Having regard to the average weekly earnings of parents generally, it remains a very serious question for all those connected with secondary education, whether the secondary teachers in relation to what they have been offered are justified in depriving the children of such parents of their education.
(4) Under the recent Burnham award in England the maximum of the common basic scale for all teachers is £1,600. The sum of £105 is payable in respect of a degree and the maximum amount payable for a graded post is £334. The total of £2,039 is £161 less than is being offered to a married man teacher here. Even if the special allowance of £50 in England continues to be applied to the holder of the Higher Diploma in Education the offer being made here would in case of a married man be £111 in excess of what is being offered in England. Incidentally, the English offer is not to come into force until the 1st April, 1969 and is to remain in force until the 31st March, 1971. The offer to our secondary teachers was being made retrospective to the 1st July, 1968. Furthermore a married man here enjoys children's allowances which are at the rate of £32 per child. No such allowances are paid in England.
(5) Among the matters which the ASTI specially wanted considered at Arbitration were levels of work and allowances for qualifications. These are matters vitally affecting the two other groups of teachers as is the fundamental necessity, if there is to be any coordination in our education, of there being basic overall unity in the teaching profession. Such unity simply means that teachers should have a common scale of salary with additions appropriate to qualifications and responsibility. This would enable a teacher who had the necessary qualifications to proceed from one branch of the teaching profession to another without any artificial barriers created by salary structures being placed in his way. It is well known that qualified teachers of such subjects as Science, Art, Manual Work and Modern Languages could not be provided in duplication in the smaller towns. It is vital, therefore, that through voluntary cooperation the services of such teachers be shared between small secondary schools and small vocational schools. There could under such voluntary cooperation be no question of any teacher being compelled to serve in a school other than that by the authorities of which he is employed.
(6) It is because these matters are of vital interest to the national teachers and the vocational teachers that they insist that such matters should not be decided by machinery in which they are not fully involved. These two groups of teachers are not willing that their rôle should be confined to that of mere witnesses at private arbitration proceedings. They want to be fully involved in the argument and counter argument which forms a normal part of all arbitration. The Minister for Education must concede that there is validity in their claim.
(7) In order, however, to cater for the susceptibilities of secondary teachers the Minister was willing that the present claim of these teachers might be heard by an agreed Arbitrator sitting alone rather than by an arbitration board comprising all the interested groups. The only condition he attached was that all the parties be consulted and be given the fullest opportunity of putting forward their viewpoint, arguments and counterarguments.
(8) As regards the future it is a matter for regret to the Minister that the ordinary members of the ASTI do not appear to have been given any real explanation of what joint conciliation and arbitration would involve. They should have been told clearly and unambiguously that no question of voting would at any stage enter into the proceedings and that any group of teachers could not be prevented by any other group from having a claim processed through the Conciliation and Arbitration machinery up to and including its being heard by an agreed independent Arbitrator.
(9) Incidentally there is no foundation for the ASTI claim that a reply was sent to the letter of the 16th December referred to in the Department's statements of the 2nd February. The letter of the 18th December in no way constituted a reply.
Is it not a fact that, instead of acting sensibly in the present situation and prior to it, the Minister is now engaged in promoting correspondence under the names of persons who have not given their consent to this correspondence in the public newspapers, correspondence supporting the Minister's stand and point of view?
I do not know what the Deputy is talking about. It is utter nonsense. If the Deputy was behaving as a reasonable citizen and Deputy, as indeed many Deputies of the House are behaving themselves in this matter—some members of his own Party are being particularly constructive—he would refrain from any further comment at this stage. Discussions are proceeding at the moment which I hope will proceed fruitfully so that the children, with whom we are all concerned, will get back to school as soon as possible.
May I further comment on the Minister's sense of irresponsibility? Did he see a request from the Irish Times asking Mrs. Taylor, over whose name a letter had been written, to contact the editor?
I should like to point out to the House that I have been concerned with far more important things than reading the correspondence columns of newspapers. I have made myself available day and night in efforts to have some amicable settlement reached in the affairs of the secondary teachers, a settlement which will also be acceptable to all the other teachers in the country, national and vocational, and I hope that the discussions taking place at this point of time will prove fruitful.
Will the Minister say if we can expect as a result of the discussions now proceeding that the arbitration procedure will be used with a view to reaching a settlement?
That is what I have been talking about.
There are talks going on. Why not let them proceed?
We will come back to the forgeries.
Let us please have a sense of responsibility.
I want to indicate the Minister's irresponsibility in having public servants drafting and disseminating these documents——
There is absolutely no truth in it.
I have photostat copies here with me with the Minister's signature and that of the Minister for Finance.
My signature? It is not my signature.
It is headed "Bun Oideachas—Bun Bhrainnse"——
It is not in order to read correspondence during Question Time.
It is in order to expose this irresponsibility.
I want to say one thing. I have found many Fine Gael Deputies very helpful in seeking to achieve an amicable settlement in this highly important matter. The Leader of the Labour Party and Labour Deputies have been equally helpful and I deplore Deputy Clinton's action in bringing in an irrelevant element to a highly serious matter.
There is the evidence and it is because I feel so deeply about this important matter that I raise it. It is not a forgery.
May I ask the Minister if he is today meeting representatives of the Association of Secondary Teachers and if they are waiting for him?
They are in my office. I had been with them since 2 o'clock until I had to leave to come down to answer the appropriate questions. I intend to go straight back.
I am very pleased. I am glad the Minister took such immediate action as a result of the urging from parents and other bodies, not least from myself. I wish him God speed.
The Deputy is cleverer than the whole lot of them.
We will be back on another issue at a later stage.