Teachers’ union warns Simon Harris he must follow through on promises made while Higher Education Minister

Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) president David Waters welcomed Junior Further Education Minister Niall Collins to their annual conference in Killarney as he replaced Mr Harris on the programme - but the union boss bluntly warned that Ireland's funding of the education sector over recent years has been "shameful”.

"The strong probability of Minister Harris becoming Taoiseach has significance," the TUI boss stressed.

"We in the TUI would hope and expect that his experience as Minister for Higher Education will be reflected in a more acute focus on education during his tenure as Taoiseach, accompanied by enhanced investment in quality public education at all levels.

"Ireland ranks at the bottom of the OECD for its investment in education. That is absolutely shameful."

Minister Niall Collins opens with remarks about Simon Harris at Killarney's TUI

"It is important to remember that when this country was in freefall, it was our education system that kept producing top quality graduates. It was our education system that kept attracting foreign investment. It was our education system that helped this country escape one of its darkest chapters.

"We want our new Taoiseach to imagine what we could do if we were actually resourced properly."

Mr Collins arrived at the TUI conference to a silent protest over the conflict in Gaza from delegates.

TUI members held aloft a number of placards urging Ireland to take a stronger stance in demanding an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Placards held aloft warned: '1224 teachers killed or injured'; 'Stop the bombing' and '351 schools bombed by Israel.'

In respect of education, Mr Collins was applauded as he warned Ireland must deliver an education system open to all.

"As a country and as a people we must be able to deliver an education system for all," he said.

The Limerick TD singled out the YouthReach programme.

"I have heard some truly inspirational stories from students who have benefitted from this service. It encapsulates what we mean by education for all,” he said.

Mr Collins also lauded the new public sector partnership agreement and said it offered the framework to tackle issues and challenges over the coming years.

He also insisted the Government was acutely aware of the cost of living crisis and was taking steps to ease the impact of it for students with new measures adding up to €35m.

Mr Waters, to the cheers of over 500 delegates, warned that some of the most important education and training initiatives in Ireland had effectively been forced to the margins in terms of resources.

"It is often observed that the ethical and cultural health of a society can best be judged by how it treats its most marginalised communities and, in terms of the public education system, Youthreach has for too long been consigned to the margins," he said.

"Minister Harris has spoken previously, and very passionately, of his belief in the positive impact of Youthreach.

"This is a programme that deals with some of the most vulnerable in our society. Students who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks of the education system, are thrown a lifeline because of Youthreach.

"There are countless instances of people, quite literally, being saved, by the work of the TUI’s members in Youthreach. The intergenerational impact is enormous, the benefit to learners and their families incalculable.

"Yet we still have centres operating in extremely poor conditions, we still have centres with staff that feel like they are an aside to the traditional education route, we still have the ludicrous scenario when during midterms, half of the staff leave and yet the centre is expected to continue running as normal, operating the same service to the same standards."

"The continued division in terms of the treatment of teachers and resource persons is sapping morale to breaking point."

Mr Waters also noted that adult education tutors have yet to receive their Building Momentum payments.

Mr Waters also noted that post-leaving cert colleges around Ireland are doing superb work with limited support.

"Capital expenditure should not be solely focussed on the major works of designing new ‘Colleges of the Future’ when we have ‘Colleges of the Present’/’Colleges of Excellence’ which would really benefit from targeted infrastructure projects, to bring their facilities up to modern standards,” he said.

"To Minister Harris’ credit, he did come out publicly and say the TUI had legitimate concerns, and a lot of the early issues were rectified. We recognised that and appreciate it, albeit after the horse had bolted."

The TUI boss also warned that the technological university sector needs better financing.

"The TUI has been consistently calling for more resources. The TU sector is a fledgling one but one you have supported,” Mr Waters said.

"However, if adequate, multi-annual funding is not provided then the sector will not be able to deliver what everyone in this room wants and expects, which is a more equitable and accessible education for all our citizens regardless of where they are in the country.

Education Minister Norma Foley accused of ‘Thatcherite language’ on special needs education

A special education needs (SEN) teacher has accused Education Minister Norma Foley of using “Thatcherite language” – adding that the Government is opposed to properly funding special needs education.

Special needs teacher hits out at Government name checking Varadkar and does not rule out strike action

James Tuohy, from the Limerick branch of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), was speaking at the union’s congress at the Millennium Forum in Derry.

He told members they needed to be prepared to take strike action and work to rule if funding was not improved for SEN.

“Minister Foley said yesterday (Monday) that we need value for money,” Mr Tuohy said. “This is Thatcherite language. They give us the resources and then they justify their position by saying we need to get value for money.

"They justify the position rather than properly funding our education system and the services that people with disabilities need.”

Delegates at the INTO annual congress have mandated the union to campaign for improved resourcing in SEN.

Deputy principal David Fagan, tells INTO about the inequality children are suffering in DEIS schools

But for Mr Tuohy, lobbying isn’t enough. “If we don’t get what we are fighting for, we shouldn’t rule out industrial action, or work to rule,” the teacher said during the most impassioned speech of the morning.

“We need courage. The disability campaigners, during the care referendum, exposed that referendum. They were being denied their autonomy as people with disabilities.

"It’s all linked with the education system, so we should link up with these people and develop a united movement to fight for resources, not lobbying, because every year we come back to the same motions and they ignore us.”

He said he felt the Government is, in essence, “opposed” to bringing about equality within the SEN system, accusing the State of being elitist.

“This came out during the care referendum,” he said. “[Taoiseach] Varadkar said it’s not the role of the State to provide care.

"He doesn’t believe that, so whether we are living in crisis or in the Celtic Tiger, or in a period of surplus of billions, they won’t commit the resources needed. That should be discussed and challenged, as this is what we are up against.

“We can’t convince these people; they are ideologically opposed. Therefore, they need to be met with determined struggle. It's the only thing that works.

“They are psychologically opposed to funding (SEN), they defend the billionaire class, and don't challenge it and give us the crumbs to fight over.”

The INTO said it is now tasked to lobby the departments of education, on both sides of the Border, for a review of the current funding models.

It said “such an overhaul must prioritise the needs of all children, particularly those with complex needs".

The union added: “The changes to the criteria for provision of SET (special education teaching) supports have disquieted many educators, while the National Council for Special Education’s (NCSE) assertion that there is insufficient data on this topic has confused teachers working at the coalface.

“Teachers are well aware of the needs of students who face acute challenges. The INTO will seek significant improvements to the SET allocation model for the ’25/’26 school year.”

Delegates have also demanded that the INTO engage with the departments of education in both jurisdictions to create a more streamlined process for the provision of assistive technology to children who are identified as needing this in their medical and/or clinical reports.

INTO general secretary John Boyle said members are “understandably irate at Government’s failure to provide vital wraparound education and care supports for children with special educational needs in schools.”

INTO votes for allowance to compensate for higher cost of living in cities

The INTO has voted for a ‘London Weighting Allowance’ to compensate for higher living costs in cities after members spoke passionately about a struggle to teach against inflation and the continuing housing crisis.

‘London weighting’ is the term used to describe an allowance paid to certain civil servants, teachers, airline employees, PhD students, police and security officers in and around London.

It is designed to help these workers with the cost of living in Greater London, which is higher than that of the rest of the UK.

Sean Hegarty representing the Dublin Tolka branch, told the INTO congress that despite a continuing responsibility for teachers, this was “not reflected in our pockets.”

INTO representative Catherine Deeley highlighted the fact that pay is unequal in teaching and, depending on the year a teacher graduated, this would dictate their pay scale.

Ms Deeley said teachers who graduated between 2011 and 2014 were at a “financial disadvantage”.

The congress heard that up to 63pc of posts can lie vacant in urban areas due to the cost-of-living crisis and housing crisis.

The emergency motion not only supports the weighting allowance. It also supports an allowance for teachers similar to the introduction of a DEIS Teachers’ Allowance, a Special School Teacher Allowance and a Special Class Teacher Allowance.

ASTI call for teaching service abroad to be included towards incremental credit

Secondary school teachers who return home after teaching in private schools in countries such as Dubai and Australia say they are being discriminated against when it comes to their pay scales.

Members of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) unanimously passed a motion demanding that all years of teaching service abroad in recognised second-level schools shall be included in the calculation of incremental credit.

Currently, secondary teachers who work in private schools outside the EU must recommence their careers at the bottom of the teachers’ pay scale if they move back to Ireland.

Teachers told the union’s annual convention that there is currently no incentive for people to move home, with staff earning thousands less than their colleagues due to the fact their work abroad is not recognised.

ASTI president Geraldine O’Brien said teachers “literally cannot afford to live here when they are put back to the point on the salary scale they were appointed to years ago”.

Delegate Michael McGrath of the Dungarvan branch said he spoke with a teacher who spent ten years in Australia. He earned €17,000 less each year in Ireland because his years abroad were not recognised when it came to his pay scale.

“That chap is now going back to Australia,” Mr McGrath said.

“The difference in salary is appalling and it is discrimination rearing its head. It doesn’t apply to all teachers. Primary school teachers get credit for all years of teaching service abroad. Teachers are in demand like our nurses and they are voting with their feet. Some of them financially cannot afford to live in Ireland and are going abroad again. That’s madness”.

Education Minister Norma Foley was criticised by delegates for an interview she gave to RTÉ Radio 1, where she said she doesn't want to make it “overly attractive” for teachers to work abroad.

“There’s a fine line we walk here in terms of the push and pull factors,” she said.

“I’m conscious that from a primary school perspective, teachers who are working in non-EU countries, their services are recognised.

“Equally, we have to be cognisant of making it overly attractive, for those going abroad and ensuring that there is a fairness to the 75,000 who are actually currently working here at home as well.”

TUI conference hears of chronic shortage of substitutes

Irish schools now face a chronic problem over the lack of substitute teachers, with an urgent need to provide full-time jobs to graduates entering the system to prevent the alarming exodus of skilled staff overseas.

The warning came as Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) general secretary Michael Gillespie said the crisis over the recruitment and retention of teachers across Irish schools was escalating.

His warning came as he revealed, at the opening of the TUI's annual conference in Killarney, that discussions are ongoing with the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) over the creation of a powerful new union.

"The TUI, as you are aware, made this offer in the context of the formation of a new amalgamated union. This offer has led to the ongoing discussions with the ASTI in relation to amalgamation and unity," he said.

Mr Gillespie stressed that unions had issued stark warnings years ago about a looming recruitment and retention crisis within the education sector.

"The TUI has made suggestions over the years as to how to alleviate this problem,” he said. “The reduction in the Professional Masters in Education (PME) from two years to one year would have an immediate impact, as would a circular letter on incremental credit for post primary teachers to help bring our teachers home from serving abroad."

Mr Gillespie said such was the pressure on rosters that teachers were now working outside their specialist fields.

The TUI boss noted the stark facts about the number of permanent jobs being offered to graduate teachers.

"In our pre-Congress survey of post 2011 teachers who entered the profession, only 12pc were offered a permanent position – 88pc were not,” he said.

"Only 35pc received a contract on full hours – 65pc did not – a scandalous statistic in the teeth of a recruitment crisis.

"Some 20pc took three years to get a contract on full hours and 34pc took longer.

"What is expected? That these teachers will wait around at management’s beck and call to make up time as substitutes? These teachers are forced to get additional part-time jobs, work summer jobs, moonlight just to make ends meet?

"These are rational young men and women who will make rational choices - and leave (Ireland). Where they go, the pay and other conditions are better – even the weather is better. Why would they stay to endure both poverty and disrespect?

"We need to give these graduates full-time jobs – now, from day one – to have any hope of keeping them as teachers.”

INTO calls more support for DEIS schools

Teachers are campaigning for better services and facilities at DEIS schools, with concerns homelessness, gangland violence and the growth of the far right are impacting children in poorer areas.

Delegates at the INTO congress in Derry have successfully gained the support of the union to back a call to improve DEIS facilities as challenges in Irish society increase.

A motion to call for better facilities and additional resources was passed by delegates.

David Fagan, deputy principal of St Laurence O’Toole’s National School in north inner city Dublin, told the congress: “I am the product of the scheme, I see it working in schools everyday.

“About 35pc of the children in my school are homeless, living in emergency accommodation, B&Bs, hotels, throughout Dublin city.

“25pc of the children are international protection students. We have about 19 Ukrainians and about 17 refugees from other countries. We have about 28 different nationalities.

“We have the traditional disadvantage and the issues that come with that. We have a large Roma population.”

Mr Fagan said the school had “very unique challenges” and it is “dealing with the issues happening in disadvantaged areas.”

“You can see in the protest in Coolock and East Wall, the riots in Dublin city centre, that happened right in front of children in our schools’ houses and apartments.

“Those are the issues we are facing, so it's important to acknowledge those. We need an increase in funding for the school completion programme.

“Our attendance last year was 81pc. So we are missing about 20pc of school days. We have a school completion project worker shared between there schools in the north inner city, we have him for one-and-a-half days a week.

“There needs to be an increase in funding in school completion programme to allow schools to employ a full time SEP worker in every DEIS school across this country.”

Another teacher from Dublin city told how children were also being impacted by gangland violence. While another representative stated work was being done to try to counter the growth of the far right in communities, it was felt Government needed to back this up urgently.

Delegate Ciara Gilligan said she had been brought up and educated in Tallaght, Dublin. She’d also been a teacher in a DEIS school there.

However, it was only when she transferred to work in a Wicklow school, that she realised the gap in equality of services.

Ms Gilligan said her “burnt out self” brought her to just 20 minutes up the road to “beautiful Blessington,” in a non DEIS school.

“It was only then the socioeconomic difference between my class of 12 in Tallaght and the 32, not 23, pupils in Blessington, sunk into my core,” she said.

“Despite the bigger crowd of pupils and their impressive amounts of paperwork, there were simply no comparisons in the levels of trauma, marginalisation and generational poverty that my previous 12 pupils were experiencing.

“It was a major culture shock to me. DEIS teaching is a vocation, we must protect and nurture our most vulnerable pupils by providing DEIS teachers and schools with adequate supports.”

She added that investment was needed in home school liaison and the schools completion programme. This was “vital,” she added, “in closing this unacceptable gap in education.”

She finished: “The child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth…”

The INTO endorsed calls for the introduction of an enhanced Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools scheme (DEIS+) for the most disadvantaged primary schools.

It said such a scheme would “offer greater support to our most vulnerable pupils and could see additional resources in the form of smaller class sizes, the development of nurture spaces and multi-disciplinary teams alongside the provision of play and music therapy onsite.

Delegates also instructed the union’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) to push the Department of Education for an increase in funding for the School Completion Programme, the provision of clinical supervision supports for teachers working as Home School Community Liaisons, and for other teachers working with vulnerable pupils in DEIS schools.

Additionally, members called for the introduction of fully resourced and staffed nurture rooms for the most disadvantaged schools, for the provision of additional teaching posts to ensure every principal in a DEIS Band 1 school is an administrative principal and for the introduction of one leadership and management release day a week for teaching deputy principals in DEIS Band 1 schools.

The INTO said it “recognises the unique challenges faced by school staff working in DEIS primary schools. The union will continue to engage with the social inclusion unit at the Department of Education to ensure that extra targeted supports are made available to schools in the most acutely disadvantaged communities.”

Mr Fagan, from the Tallaght branch of the INTO proposed the motion. He had himself, attended DEIS school and the Access programme at St Patrick’s.

Education minister says ‘nothing off the table’

Nothing is off the table when it comes to measures to tackle the current shortage of teachers, according to the education minister.

Norma Foley said she and her department were happy to "pursue" suggestions put forward by the teachers' unions to address the recruitment and retention crisis.

Ms Foley said there will be occasions where there are absences among the 75,000 teachers in the system.

"We will be proactive in this space. As I said, the various measures we've introduced and we will look at further and more measures," she told RTE.

"But this is not unique to the education sector. This is an issue for a country that is near full employment that we're going to have from time to time in various areas.

"I don't take away the stress that it creates on school leaders but we are being supportive as much of as far as possible. We work in a partnership environment, so suggestions that are being made to us we're happy to pursue."

Asked whether her department will consider introducing an allowance for teachers, particularly for those in urban areas which is experiencing the biggest shortages, Ms Foley said it would be considered.

"Equally as I say, if it's something that's to be looked at... I will take nothing off the table," she said.

"I think in the interest of fairness, if it had to be looked at right across the public sector, I think that's only right.

"I think there would have to be a broad agreement amongst all the unions in relation to it also."

The teachers' unions have called for full recognition of teaching experience gained overseas in non-EU countries, including the Middle East and Australia.

However, Ms Foley said she does not want to make it "overly attractive" to Irish teachers to work abroad.

"There's a fine line we walk here in terms of the push and pull factors," she said.

"I'm conscious that from a primary school perspective, teachers who are working in non-EU countries, their services are recognised.

"Equally, we have to be cognizant of making it overly attractive, for those going abroad and ensuring that there is a fairness to the 75,000 who are actually currently working here at home as well."

ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie said there needs to be a "complete change of thinking" within the education department.

Mr Christie accused Ms Foley of having a "minimalist approach" in her measures.

"She has introduced a considerable number of small measures that haven't made a dent in the problem," he added.

"What needs to happen with this minister and department of education is complete change in their thinking in relation to it.

"The efforts to entice people back from abroad from places like Canada and Australia has been feeble and pitiable.

"Inviting people back next September to part-time jobs is not going to cut it."

INTO hits out at excessive workloads

Excessive workloads must be alleviated to allow teachers and learning to become a major priority in primary and secondary schools, the INTO annual congress has heard.

Teachers attending the congress in Derry have stated serious concern about what they have called “unreasonably demanding workload and expectations” that school leaders, particularly principal teachers, continue to face.

Proposing the motion, Joanne Doherty, Cork City South West Branch, said: “The complexity of our schools is ever-changing, compounded by rapidly expanding regulatory compliance and relentless demands from the Department of Education.

“Principals find themselves inundated with responsibilities, from overseeing building projects and maintenance to hunting for substitutes, usually at antisocial hours, all while grappling with a lack of role clarity and hugely inadequate support. It’s no wonder that many principals are feeling despondent and burnt out. We cannot ignore the toll this takes on our school leaders.

“It is evident that many principals have or are considering taking the difficult decision to step down from their roles.”

Delegates have demanded a structured and dignified step-down process for principals must be introduced by the Department of Education for school leaders’ who state they cannot sustain what was labelled as “the never-ending increase in workload.”

Last year, the INTO published a workload report on the challenges facing teachers and school leaders. This report revealed that nine in 10 primary teachers are struggling with a workload that is ‘bursting at the seams’, while it also revealed principals work an additional 600 hours a year outside school time.

INTO general secretary John Boyle said: “School leaders are telling us the job is becoming unsustainable. The Department of Education must do more than just talk about well-being, they must take urgent action to tackle this workload crisis if they want to retain our hard-working school leaders.”

Last year, in its pre-Budget submission, the INTO called for the restoration of 2,400 assistant principal posts. The €2m the Department allocated for posts of responsibility in the sector is “a drop in the ocean and still leaves us short of nearly 2000 of these vital middle leadership posts,” Mr Boyle said.

“In March 2009, there were 1,605 Assistant Principal 1 and 8,593 Assistant Principal 2 positions, compared to 1,228 Assistant Principal 1 and 6,655 Assistant Principal 2 positions in April 2023.”