Sir, – We can only hope that our children are being taught better manners than those displayed by their teachers at their annual conferences.
Once again we have seen disgraceful behaviour from our teachers who insist on inviting the Minister to address their conference and then openly insulting their guest by heckling, etc. What an example for the future generations. – Yours, etc,
TERRY DOYLE,
River Forest,
Leixlip,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – This number, 141,476,261,432, is the size of the Irish national debt in euros as I write. I find it remarkable that teachers in the public sector, who one would imagine to be well educated in mathematics, are whingeing about Croke Park 2
They are being offered what to people like myself who have seen their industry sector collapse, along with 100 per cent of their take-home pay, very generous pay, conditions and job security. This country is bankrupt and only surviving by the generosity of other nations, which are under no legal obligation to support us.
The teachers are not alone in their delusional frame of mind. We have cadres of other middle and senior management throughout the public sector who are on terms of employment which are beyond the wildest dreams of most ordinary citizens. These individuals in turn are whipped up by their union leaders, who earn multiples of the average industrial wage. So my message to them all is to stop whining and accept Croke Park 2. They are lucky to get offered it at all. – Yours, etc,
GREGORY PYM,
Ardrahan, Co Galway.
Sir, – I heard some of the teachers protesting against all sorts of things that seemed to indicate that they, themselves, were not very well educated.
If they are in fact “literate and numerate” (part of one of the self-righteous sneers I heard), perhaps one of their speakers would explain clearly where they think that the money comes from to pay their salaries, pensions, three-month holidays, sick pay, etc.
It is not those cuts that are causing financial hardship, as they claim, it is their huge incomes (and those of thousands and thousands more cosseted bureaucrats) that are causing the financial hardship in the country. – Yours, etc,
RD BANTON,
Kevin Street,
Tinahely, Co Wicklow.