Sir, – Mary Minihan’s interview with Ruairí Quinn (Home News, July 2012) refers to “teachers whose pay accounts for more than 80 per cent of the education budget”. This is factually incorrect.
The cost of teachers’ salaries at primary and post-primary this year is €3.78 billion. This is roughly 44 per cent of the education budget of €8.67 billion, about half the percentage quoted by your reporter.
Your readers can verify this in the revised estimates for the public service 2012 available on per.gov.ie/wp-content/ uploads/REV-2012-Final1.pdf – Yours, etc,