IPPN

Published: 14 November 2008

Source : Irish Examiner

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
THE €800,000-plus paid to TDs and senators for teaching jobs they have not worked in over the past decade has been described by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe as not significant.

His comments were made in an Irish Examiner interview in September ahead of the publication by his department this week of figures, showing 17 Oireachtas members shared €314,631 between July 2003 and the end of 2007, an average of more than €18,500 each and €4,112 a year.

Figures previously revealed by the Irish Examiner showed that €498,156 was paid to 20 TDs and senators from April 1998 to about mid-2003, bringing total payments to €812,788.

The money was paid under a scheme which allows teachers elected to the Oireachtas keep their jobs, continue to move up the pay scale each year and keep the difference between their teacher's salary and the cost of a substitute teacher, without having to enter a class.

Mr O'Keeffe was asked by the Irish Examiner two months ago if he would consider reviewing the system, or even the payments, in light of the economic downturn.

"It hasn't come on my barometer as yet. But it's a right that's enshrined for the teaching profession, I think two previous ministers for education looked at it and didn't come to any conclusion," the minister said.

"It's something every minister will look at over time but I think the total amount of money involved is not significant," he said.

His comments were made just weeks after his department ordered a 3% cut in pay bills for next year in light of an estimated €3.5 billion budget deficit.

A spokesperson for Mr O'Keeffe said last night that he still has no plans to change the existing arrangements.

The minister was paid the difference between his salary and a replacement lecturer at Cork Institute of Technology from 1987 until he retired from the job in 2005.

The highest earner in the combined period was Waterford Labour TD Brian O'Shea, who received more than €93,000 from 1998 up to his retirement from teaching in 2006.

The next highest earner up to the end of last year was Government chief whip, Pat Carey, who retired from his primary school job last September.

Labour TDs Róisín Shortall, Tommy Broughan and Brendan Howlin, and Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan are among those still hold teaching jobs but who have stopped accepting salary payments. Government ministers Mary Hanafin, Micheál Martin and Noel Dempsey do not accept the money either, although the two male ministers took payments up to 1997 and 2002, respectively.

Highest earners: April 1998 to December 2007.

* Brian O'Shea (Labour TD, Waterford): €93,244.94 (retired as teacher in 2006).

* Pat Carey (Government Chief Whip, FF TD, Dublin North West): €86,501.88 (retired 2007).

* Tom Kitt (FF TD, Dublin South): €84,984.77 (retired 2007).

* Liam Fitzgerald (FF Senator to May 2007): €84,273.57 (retired 2007)

* Paul McGrath (FG TD to May 2007, Westmeath): €69,264.59 (retired 2007).