'Essentially you are going to have to take a vow of poverty'

WHAT IT MEANS FOR ME:SEÁN O'NEILL, Teacher

YESTERDAY’S FOUR-year plan provided few grounds for optimism according to Seán O’Neill, an English teacher at St Laurence’s College, Loughlinstown, South Dublin.

“The biggest issue was undoubtedly the cuts in frontline service in education,” he says. “It’s storing up major problems in the school system. The change in demographics means that we are going to have larger classes and fewer teachers.”

But it was the decision to cut the starting salary of new entries to the public service that was the main talking point among teachers yesterday. “It’s appalling,” says Seán O’Neill, who has worked as a teacher for 10 years.

“Essentially you are going to have to take a vow of poverty in order to become a teacher. The added problem is that permanent jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to secure. Most graduates have to wait at least seven years for a full-time job.”

On the subject of the decision to maintain the current pay levels in line with the Croke Park agreement, Seán pointed out that the agreement was still under negotiation, and could be open to change.

The other issue of concern was the changes to pension schemes for public sector workers.

“The decision to base the final pension on career average earnings rather than final salary will signal a drop of about 50 per cent for teachers’ pensions,” he said.