Teachers told pay freeze could save 2,000 jobs
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
By Aine KerrThursday October 30 2008
FINE Gael last night reiterated its controversial proposal to freeze the salaries of teachers earning over €50,000 before the mass gathering of protesting teachers.
The party's education spokesman Brian Hayes, who has previously argued in the Dail that €128m could be saved by freezing next September's 3.5pc pay increase, last night lived up to his pledge to outline the proposal to those it would directly affect.
"We are all in difficult times. We know the difficult choices that have to be made. We have suggested a difficult, painful thing to the public service in terms of people over €50,000 and I know it is difficult and painful," he said.
"But I will say this, I will not stand back and allow 2,000 teachers face redundancies next year. I won't stand for it".
His controversial call for a pay freeze, which would divert attention from other key education areas and ensure that class sizes could be maintained, received applause and cheers.
However, a small number of teachers chanted "No pay cuts" for the remainder of Mr Hayes' speech. The Fine Gael spokesman also rejected the claim by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, that unions were "scaremongering", describing it as an "insidious comment".
Problem
"The teacher unions of this country are not part of the problem. It's Fianna Fail. They are the problem," he said.
The education spokesman has previously argued it is the responsibility of the opposition to provide alternative solutions and identify where other savings can be made so that supervision, language teachers and class sizes aren't touched.
- Aine Kerr
