A YEARLY ALLOWANCE for teachers who teach through Irish should be reintroduced, after it was scrapped to save the Government money, educators have said.
Gaeloideachas, a representative national body for education through the Irish language, said that official recognition is needed for the additional workload for teachers who are teaching in Irish-medium settings in order to address the recruitment crisis in the sector.
According to a survey carried out by the INTO last October, there were 18 permanent and 18 fixed-term posts vacant in 53 Gaelscoileanna across the country, along with 34 vacant long-term substitute posts.
Prior to 2012, the teaching-through-Irish allowance was paid to all teachers who were qualified to teach through the medium of Irish as a supplement to their basic salary.
In 2012, due to the financial crisis, the government announced that it would be suspending a number of public service allowances for new beneficiaries in order to reduce the total cost of the Exchequer pay bill by €3.8 billion from 2009 to 2015.
This came after a public service-wide review of allowances and premium payments.
The teaching-through-Irish allowance was among the allowances to be suspended. This meant that any teacher who was still earning the allowance would continue to receive it, but it would no longer be paid to teachers who qualified after 1 February 2012.
A Department of Education spokesperson told The Journal that there are currently 964 teachers in total who receive the teaching-through-Irish allowance – 921 in primary and 43 in post-primary.
As of 1 October 2023, the rate of the teaching-through-Irish allowance stands at €1,812.20 per year.
The Department also said that any change to current allowances give “rise to significant cost issues” and should be “part of engagement and collective agreements between unions and Government”.
According to Gaeloideachas, this has created an “unfair divide” between teachers who still earn the allowance and those who don’t.
Speaking to The Journal, Gaeloideachas CEO Bláthnaid ní Ghréacháin said:
There’s an inequality there that’s very unfair on teachers.
“You can imagine if you were in a classroom, and you’re working hard to do your very best for the children, and then your colleague is getting an allowance for that work that you’re doing that you’re not getting. It’s just inherently and profoundly unfair on those people.”
Ní Ghréacháin said that if those who still earn the allowance move from their current job and begin teaching in a new school, they cease to receive the allowance – even if it is an Irish-medium school.
“There’s no logic to it. There’s no logic to it being denied those new to the profession, and there’s clearly no logic to losing the allowance if you’re established in the profession for a long time, but lose the allowance because you move to another Gaelscoil,” she said.
“A teacher might want to, for example, move from a Gaelscoil to a Gaeltacht school where they can share their expertise in a certain area, such as support for children with special educational needs, but they’re losing an allowance for any of that internal movement between schools, which is completely illogical and runs counter to the principle of continual professional experience.
“I don’t know if these things were actually thought out at all, or whether any unintended consequences were considered at all. It is very demotivating for teachers, especially now when there is a supply crisis and they are increasingly overburdened.”
She said that the workload for teachers who teach through Irish is greater than for teachers in English-medium schools in that all teaching is through Irish, with teachers often having to translate materials and resources, doing administrative work through Irish or bilingually for parents and creating additional resources and assessment tools.
“We’re expecting language skills and proficiency at a very high level from teachers, over and above what is required of other teachers in English-medium schools. They need to have language skills and proficiency at a very high level.”
The reintroduction of the allowance would be seen as a recognition of the extra work undertaken, she added.
One teacher in the west of the country who has been teaching in Gaelscoileanna for over 20 years told The Journal that her allowance was recently stopped after she moved from her full-time position to take on a job share in another school.
“If I had done a job share in my own school, I wouldn’t have lost it,” she said.
The teacher said that working in a language immersion education setting requires a particular skill set, as well as a high level of written and spoken competence in Irish.
She said that the changes to the payment of the allowance goes against the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030, which was developed to promote an integrated approach to the Irish language.
“Irish is a minority language, as documented by UNESCO, and the State really does rely on the education system – scoileanna Gaeltachta and scoileanna lán-Gaeilge – to preserve and nurture the language,” she said.
Taking allowances from educators who make decisions based on personal, family or financial circumstances is a real, real inequality that needs to be reversed immediately.
“Here are all these steps of progress in terms of our native language and yet there’s this backpedalling. It’s a total contradiction.”
The teacher also said there is a “real difficulty” in getting teachers with a good degree of Irish to teach in all-Irish schools, but said there is no incentive for them to do so.
She also criticised the fact that any teacher who qualified after 2012 is not entitled to the allowance.
“If you imagine that, in staff rooms across the country. Teachers are sitting beside their colleagues, all doing the same work, and depending on personal circumstances, or what year they qualified, some of them are not receiving the allowance,” she said.
“In terms of equality and fairness, the allowance should be reinstated and paid to all teachers who work in Gaelscoileanna lán stad, regardless of when they qualified. It should also be backdated for all staff members.”
The Department is currently reviewing a public consultation process, which sought the views of interested stakeholders to inform the development of a new policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht.
Ní Ghréacháin said that the success of the policy is reliant on teachers who are fluent in Irish and willing to work in an immersion education setting.
“I think there is a lot of goodwill among teachers. Teachers generally see that inherent value in teaching in an immersion setting,” she said.
“But with the current crisis in teacher supply and with the additional burden on teachers throughout the system, I think it’s harder to maintain that goodwill.
“I think we’re expecting an awful lot from them, without giving recognition for that additional work, and it’s well documented, there’s a lot of extra work there.
“With a small monetary investment from the State, a lot of goodwill could be achieved and maintained. I think it would encourage people to stay in the system.
There’s so many issues. We can see there are so many young graduates leaving to go to other countries to enjoy better conditions, and it’s understandable.
“I’m not saying that this conservative allowance would be the deciding factor for staying in Ireland, nor would it resolve the supply crisis, but I think it would definitely help. It may just give teachers something to consider where they feel that they’re valued and appreciated for the amazing work that they do.”
In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said:
“Additional amendments to teacher terms and conditions, including pay and allowances, can only be achieved through engagement and collective bargaining agreements between the Government and the public service unions.
“Any further amendments to alter the allowances paid to teachers, whether new entrant or not, give rise to significant cost issues and should, as mentioned, be part of engagement and collective agreements between unions and Government.”
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