Teaching perks for politicians set to end [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 05 February 2011
TEACHERS elected to the next Dáil and Seanad will no longer be entitled to build up their teacher pensions while serving in the Oireachtas.
The Government has also decided that TDs and senators will no longer have the option of returning to their jobs after 10 years or moving up the salary scale for teachers during their absence.
The move follows the ending in 2009 of the system that allowed TDs and senators on career breaks from teaching to keep the difference between their salary and the cost of a replacement teacher to their school.
The payments varied, depending on the point the Oireachtas member was at on the 25-year teachers’ salary scale (which they continued to go up each year even while not teaching) and the comparative experience of their replacement.
More than €800,000 was paid in the 10 years to the end of 2007 to more than 20 TDs and senators who benefited from this arrangement, which has been in place since the 1970s.
But it is only in a letter to school managers this week that the Department of Education outlines how other benefits are now to come to an end for members of the profession elected to Leinster House from the start of the next Dáil and Seanad.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
