Media Coverage

INTO in the Media

Michael Reade Show - LMFM
2nd February 2012
Education Cuts. Noreen Flynn (INTO) discusses concern for rural schools and education cuts that will effect the pupil/teacher ratio.

Separate school protests held in Dublin - RTE News
2nd February 2012
Two primary school protests have taken place in Dublin. Two separate primary school protests have taken place in Dublin. Pupils from Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra, Dublin, demonstrated outside the Department of Education over the school's accommodation. The school has been housed in temporary prefabs since 1996 and is campaigning for a new school building. Organisers say around 60 people took part in the protest. Earlier, 50 pupils from the Old Borough National School in Swords, Co Dublin, along with teachers and parents, protested outside the Dáil over changes to teacher support services. The school said the reorganisation of services will mean its full-time learning support teacher position will now be cut to a part-time post

Hundreds gather at Dáil for protest against small school cuts - The Journal
2nd February 2012
Hundreds of parents, teachers and their supporters have gathered outside Leinster House tonight to protest against planned staff cuts in smaller schools.
One demonstrator estimated that as many as 1,500 people had travelled for the demonstration, which was addressed by the president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation Noreen Flynn.
Flynn hit out at proposed changes to the way teachers are allocated to smaller schools, which she said would result in large increases in class sizes.
“It is not a case of one child extra per class but five or six additional children per class,” she said, adding that the cuts would take place “in classrooms where teachers are already teaching two, three or four class groups in the same room along with special needs children.”...

New teaching entrants to earn 30% less than their colleagues - Irish Times
2nd February 2012
New entrants to the teaching profession will be earning EUR10,000 a year less than their colleagues after the Department of Education moved to suspend the payment of various allowances....The Irish National Teachers Organisation said yesterday that the qualification allowances to teachers were an integral part of salary and pensions. The other payments were for extra work undertaken in schools necessary for their proper running. It condemned the fact that the decision was announced without any consultation with unions. In the run-up to the budget there had been speculation that the Government wanted to target these allowances and payments under the teacher supervision and substitution scheme. However the Croke Park agreement - which promises no pay cuts in return for reform measures rules out any cuts to teachers' pay....

Education gains 'can be kept with small pay cuts' - Irish Independent
2nd February 2012
A Post-Primary principals' leader says that it would be better to cut teachers' pay than to reduce staffing in schools in order to save money....An Irish National Teachers' Organisation spokesman said teachers had already absorbed pay cuts and a pension levy and were "doing more for less"....

1,000 lay siege to Dáil on school cuts - Irish Daily Mirror
2nd February 2012
Up to 1,000 teachers and parents laid siege to Leinster House last night to protest against planned staff cuts in small schools. Teachers' leader Noreen Flynn said the cuts mean losing a teacher in up to 100 small schools in September. Earlier, pupils protested at the Dáil over changes to teacher support...

Teachers lose up to 9K in perks... But only new recruits - Irish Daily Mail
2nd February 2012
...The Irish National Teachers Organisation condemned the pay freeze and called ont he department to reverse it. The union said that payments for supervision, substitution and the secretary to boards of management allowances paid to principals will be frozen. Teachers who are promoted to assistant principal positions will also be hit as they will not be given the additional allowance for the extra responsibility, pending the same review. INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan said that primary teachers had delivered fully on the Croke Park Agreement over the past year and now they were being punished. They have acted in good faith and have been treated unfairly by their employer,' she said. The union said the qualification allowances are 'an integral part' of salaries and this decision would cause significant difficulties for teachers and schools...

Day the rural schools fought back - Irish Daily Mail
2nd February 2012
Hundreds of children, teachers and parents took to the streets outside the Dáil last night to protest at cuts to small schools. As school bells rang across the country pupils, teachers, parents and worried members of the community piled into buses and made their way to Dublin as Politicians inside the Dáil debated the education cuts that Ruairi Quinn had announced. As part of the Education Minister's budget, many small, mainly rural schools are set to lose a teacher from September, which will force some to close or to amalgamate....Noreen Flynn, President of the INTO who spoke at the protest last night, called on Mr. Quinn to rethink the swingeing cutbacks. She said that up to 100 schools would lose a teacher in September, which would mean massive increases in class sizes and many teachers being forced to educate four year groups in the same class. She said: 'It is not a case of one child extra per class, but five or six additional children per class in classrooms where teachers are already teaching two, three or four class groups in the same room along with special needs children...

Newstalk Radio News (including interview with Noel Ward)
1st February 2012
Teachers’ unions are criticising a move by the government to stop allowances for new staff. Teachers were previously eligible for additional payments in certain circumstances such as having a higher degree, teaching through Irish and for carrying out supervision duties. The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has condemned the government decision not to pay the allowances pending a month-long review...

News - 98 FM
1st February 2012
A major protest against cuts to the education sector is taking place outside Leinster House this evening. Hundreds of parents and teachers have gathered to voice their opposition to planned staff cuts in smaller schools. President of the Irish National Teachers Organisation Noreen Flynn addressed the crowd. She told protesters that the cuts would result in large increases in class sizes because of the way teachers are allocated to smaller schools. The Government has rowed in behind the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, who introduced the cuts as part of Budget 2012.

News on Two - RTE Two
1st February 2012
Protest
Hundreds of primary school pupils along with their parents and teachers took part in a protest outside Leinster House tonight

Nine News - 4FM
1st February 2012
Teacher Allowances. The INTO are this morning criticising a move by the government to stop allowances for new staff.

Nine News - Today FM
1st February 2012
Teacher Payments
Teachers unions are criticising a move by the government to stop allowances for new teachers.

New public servants not eligible for extra payments - Irish Examiner
1st February 2012
Thousands of new entrants to the public service, most of them replacing those availing of early retirement pension arrangements, will not be eligible for extra allowances from today. ....The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said notice of the changes was discriminatory against new teachers who have already taken severe pay cuts over and above more experienced colleagues.

Schools to descent on Dáil in protest at teachers cuts - Irish Daily Mail
1st February 2012
Hundreds of angry parents and teachers will this afternoon make their way to the Dail after classes in their battle against cuts to small schools that they claim will devastate rural communities. Protesters from across the country will travel by the busload to the gates of Leinster House as the campaign against staff cuts at schools with fewer than 100 pupils intensifies. The demonstration will coincide with tonight's vote on a Fianna Fáil motion 'objecting to this discriminatory policy that will result in many communities losing their local school'. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has remained steadfast in his decision to increase the pupil-teacher ratio in small, mainly rural schools from next September. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation has called on the minister to rethink his budget cuts, which will see a jump in thresholds for the allocation of teachers in two, three and four teacher schools...