'Excessively cautious and stubbornly rooted in an austerity mindset'
TUI’s initial response to Budget 2019 - Tuesday, 9th October 2018. Comments from TUI General Secretary John MacGabhann.
Putting today’s education measures in their proper context
‘Today’s announcement does not come within shouting distance of the additional investment required to provide meaningful, transformative change for the education system.
The effects of an era of cutbacks will continue to be felt and to inflict damage on the educational experience of students and on the teaching profession, not least on the careers of new and recently qualified teachers.
Look behind Government spin, and the latest figures show that Ireland is bottom of the pile in terms of total education expenditure in international terms (joint last of 33 OECD countries), with just 3.3% of GDP invested here compared to the OECD and EU averages of 4.5% and 4.2% respectively. At second level, our spend is just 1.1% of GDP compared to the OECD average of 2%.
The failure of successive Irish governments to invest appropriately in Irish education represents a continuing, sustained attack on the most vulnerable families in communities across the country.’
Increase in teacher numbers
‘Any increase in teacher numbers is welcome, but the adjustments at second level highlighted today do nothing more than keep pace with the continuing rise in student numbers.’
Third level funding
‘The additional €57m in current funding announced for higher education is woefully inadequate and will do very little to boost a sector that has been devastated by steep funding cuts. The failure of Government over successive years to make the necessary investment has had an extremely damaging effect on the working conditions of academic staff, on student experience and on the positioning of Irish institutions in international rankings. Denial of the oxygen of public investment is choking the life of a prime national asset.’
‘Wellbeing’
The recruitment of an additional 10 psychologists to the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), while welcome, will not meet the additional demands generated by an increasingly challenging societal environment for students.
Schools still have greatly diminished ‘first responder’ student safety frameworks (compared to before the austerity cuts). Students, especially vulnerable students, are suffering as a consequence. Middle management capacity, the mainstay of student support structures, has been slashed. It is an indictment of this Budget that there is no provision at all for restoration of that capacity. Guidance counselling provision also needs to be increased.
Failure to end pay discrimination
‘It is regrettable in the extreme that today’s Budget does not, for once and for all, end the scandal of discriminatory pay. TUI members are currently being balloted on a proposal on new entrant pay, which, at best, represents a step on the road towards full restoration. Irrespective of the ballot outcome, the TUI’s campaign will continue until pay equality has been delivered.’
A failure to harness the education system’s potential
‘Investment in education pays huge dividends to society in economic terms. Yet again, our policymakers have failed to acknowledge this.
Summary of TUI's Pre-Budget submission below
It is a core principle of TUI that the social contract be maintained as the underpinning construct for Irish society and, by extension, for public policy, including budgetary policy. Central to the social contract is the equitable provision of high quality health, education, housing and other social services and protections so as to ensure that all our people can live in safety, with dignity, and are enabled meaningfully to participate in and contribute to Irish society, according to their respective talents.
In this context, it is a cause for concern that the damage inflicted by recession-era public spending retrenchments have led to imbalances and inequalities that threaten social cohesion. It is the view of the TUI that Budget 2019 should have the declared aim of cultivating a rooted sense of social cohesion and solidarity.
The key elements of the Union's pre-Budget 2019 submission are set out below.
While most of our focus will be on the education system, we are gravely concerned by the failure to address the housing crisis. Government must, as a matter of extreme urgency, invest in and implement an extensive programme for the provision of social and affordable housing. The ideologically blinkered approach of looking to the private sector is exacerbating the crisis. Therefore, rather than relying excessively on a self-interested private sector – an approach that has manifestly failed - government must re-instate the local authorities as providers of such housing and provide the necessary funding.
Clearly, additional new funding sources are required. There are many options in this regard.
Additional funding could be sourced, for example, through the restoration of the 13.5% rate of VAT on the now buoyant hospitality industry. A 2018 Department of Finance study found that the concessionary VAT rate has reduced the tax-take by €2.6bn since 2011.
Even a small financial transactions tax could considerably raise revenue to the Exchequer.
For many years the TUI has also suggested a 1% levy on corporate profits to generate a dedicated fund for investment in higher education. Such a levy would have generated €656m in 2017. It is important to note that all of these measures could easily be constructed in such a way as to give protections to small businesses.
Budget 2019 must signal the steps necessary to have those who entered the public service on or after 1st January 2011, including teachers and lecturers, placed on the same rates of pay that apply to their colleagues who entered prior to that date. The palpable injustice of the current differential must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to continuing, and damaging, industrial relations unrest and the attendant disruption to public education services.
- Targeted, incremental improvement in the pupil/teacher ratio at second level and in further education, with an initial focus on tackling and overcoming the disabling effects of educational disadvantage - in the context of which the restoration of the previously available level of ex-quota guidance counselling allocation needs to be achieved.
- In this context also, programmes that focus on ameliorating inter-generational disadvantage, such, for example, as DEIS and School Completion Programmes, must continue to be funded and have their level of funding restored and enhanced.
- Full restoration of school capacity to meet student support, administrative, curricular and compliance needs by way of restoration of the posts of responsibility suppressed as a result of the moratorium introduced in 2009. The significant reduction in middle management capacity in schools over the last six years, notwithstanding the modest improvement in circular 3/2018, has severely damaged the ability of schools to respond in an appropriate and effective manner to the varied needs of students and their families.
- The introduction of recognised, agreed terms and conditions, including a pay scale, for all further and adult education staff
- The introduction of measures that appropriately recognise the value to society of further and adult education, that identify it as a core element of the state-funded public education system and that, accordingly, treat students and staff – in terms of facilities and terms and conditions of employment, respectively - with respect
- TUI is determined to maintain the quality of provision in this sector. The Union is concerned that the approach of agencies such as SOLAS is excessively focused on labour market outcomes and that there may be a damaging drift towards privatisation.
- The application of a levy of 1% on corporate profits to generate a dedicated fund for investment in higher education. This would be a tangible and substantial contribution by corporations that benefit from Ireland’s graduate pool. Such a levy would have generated €656m in 2017.
- Increased academic staffing levels for Institutes of Technology in recognition of the urgent need to restore appropriate standards of provision to students, to arrest and reverse the casualisation and demoralisation of academic staff and to enable the sector to meet the challenges presented by legislative and structural changes
- Adequate, additional investment in Institutes of Technology, not least in the context of movement towards Technological University status. It is inevitable that re-structuring will fail and will result in diminished quality and capacity if attempted without the requisite level of funding.
- A rejection of privatisation and/or out-sourcing of public education services and a commitment to preserving national regulatory competence by excluding education from international trade agreements
- A restoration of tax relief for trade union subscriptions
In summary, the TUI demands that progressive measures be taken in Budget 2019 to undo the corrosive and damaging effects of the cutbacks of recent years and to maintain public trust in public services and the political process. The union wants government to ensure access to a public education service of the highest quality for all, irrespective of socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity.
The education provisions of Budget 2019 must demonstrate a commitment to equity and fairness and must give expression in practical terms to the democratic, societal imperative to eliminate educational disadvantage.