‘SUPER’ MARY LUCKY TO HANG ON TO HER JOB
Mitchell O’Connor intervention on teachers’ pay has ‘angered Varadkar’
MINISTER Mary Mitchell O’Connor’s intervention on teachers’ pay has infuriated the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.
It has also ‘scuppered’ any possibility of her or Government chief whip Joe McHugh securing a pay top-up that would give them parity with the other super-junior ministers. One senior figure warned: ‘Far from getting a pay increase, she is lucky to be keeping her job after last week.’
The controversy arose on Wednesday when Ms Mitchell O’Connor, the junior education minister,
was asked whether teachers deserved equal pay for equal work. She said they did and added: ‘I am going to stand by that.’
Her comments contradicted Government policy and were quickly shot down by her boss, Education Minister Richard Bruton.
The salary of new teachers was cut by 14% under pay deals reached during the recession.
The pay of more experienced teachers was not cut.
A Government source said yesterday that equalising pay would cost the State more than €200m.
And the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned that Mr Varadkar and Mr Donohoe are still furious with her over the debacle.
The Taoiseach has not commented publicly on the issue. But a source close to him said: ‘Varadkar and Paschal are seriously annoyed by what they believe to be a very unwise intervention.’
Another source said her intervention had distracted attention from several attractive education initiatives announced during the week.
He said: ‘In Leo’s eyes, O’Connor didn’t just play into the hands of militant teacher unions and help out the opposition.
‘Worse still, she also took away from the sort of positive announcement Leo loves: new bursaries and scholarships for people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to college, he will not forget this.’
A source laid out the financial implications of Ms Mitchell O’Connor’s position: ‘Under Lansdowne Road, the starting pay of a teacher straight out of college will be €37,600 by the end of the agreement. That is core Government policy.
‘To fully equalise the pay scales would mean the starting pay for a new teacher straight out of college would be over €43,800. That would cost over €200m.’
In spite of anger across the Cabinet, Ms O’Connor will retain her job. But she has likely buried any chance of the €16,000 pay increase the Government had hoped to secure for her and chief whip Joe McHugh as super-junior ministers. Unlike other junior ministers, super-juniors are allowed to sit in at Cabinet meetings, although they
‘Seriously annoyed at an unwise intervention’
do not have a vote there. Currently the law allows only two super-junior ministers to be paid a top-up of €16,288. Those two are Finian McGrath and Paul Kehoe.
Legislation would be required for Ms Mitchell O’Connor and Mr McHugh to get the top-up.
Ms Mitchell O’Connor was dropped from her Cabinet role as enterprise minister in Mr Varadkar’s reshuffle in June.
He had hoped to soften the blow of her demotion by making her a super-junior minister with the pay top-up. A source said: ‘The chances of the necessary legislation being put through are not on the shortterm list and they are not on the long-term list either.’
She has, the source added, ‘scuttled her own ship’.
Ms Mitchell O’Connor has said previously that she would like equal pay to other super-junior ministers but would not be asking for it. But the legislation required to secure parity for her and Mr McHugh is not on the Government’s agenda.
The minister’s own department has not engaged in correspondence with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or any other department on the issue.
The minister did receive sympathy from the Fianna Fáil education spokesman Thomas Byrne.
Mr Byrne said: ‘It is a weird scenario where a person who is more senior than Finian McGrath and Paul Kehoe earns less.’ But he added: ‘We are absolutely not going to support extra provision for super-junior pay increases.’
One Government source pointed the finger of blame at the Taoiseach: He said: ‘Leo has created this problem. She didn’t have to be appointed to anything.’
Ms O’Connor did not respond to questions but it is believed that she is unapologetic, feeling that she gave a straight answer to a straight question.
‘The Taoiseach has created this problem’