MEMBERS OF THE COUNTRY’S three teachers’ unions, and students from some teacher training colleges, have held a rally in Dublin this afternoon in opposition to possible changes in the forthcoming Budget that affect teachers.

The rally – jointly organised by the INTO, the sole trade union for primary teachers, and the TUI and ASTI who represent secondary teachers – is in opposition to possible increases in the pupil-teacher ratio in the forthcoming Budget.

Over a thousand demonstrators assembled at the Department of Education headquarters on Marlborough St, before crossing the Liffey and marching on Leinster House.

The demonstration was also in opposition to what the teachers see as an unequal pay system, where new entrants to the teaching profession are paid drastically less than colleagues who perform equal work but who entered the profession earlier.

The changes in pay structures for so-called ‘NQTs’ – newly-qualified teachers – mean two teachers who earn their teaching qualifications at the same time could end up on a different salary scale, depending on when they are able to find full-time work.

It is estimated that people who entered the teaching workforce two years ago could earn over €250,000 more throughout their careers than those who took their first teaching jobs this autumn.

Those newly-qualified teachers are also not protected by the Croke Park agreement, having joined the public workforce after 2010, and can therefore have allowances taken from their pay where elder colleagues cannot.

INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said the cuts were “unjust, unfair and unwarranted”.