Sir, – I am a 40-year old, recently qualified, post-primary teacher.
The Government’s policy to significantly cut the pay of new entrants to the profession is often framed as being an attack on the youth of the country while protecting those of a more mature vintage. However, not an insignificant minority of my classmates in UCD were people who were returning to education later in life: thus it might be more precise to frame Government policy (with the tacit support of the unions) as exploiting “outsiders” at the expense of “insiders”. – Yours, etc,