Last week’s statement by Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin in which he attacked the decision of the Irish National Teachers Organisation not to cooperate with the exploitative JobBridge scheme is nothing short of scandalous.
At a time when the Labour/Fine Gael government have stood by as €700 million was gifted to unsecured Anglo bondholders, while the Government implement cuts to special education in the form of SNA cuts and slash the wages and pensions of new entrant teachers, it beggars belief that Deputy O’ Riodain would shed crocodile tears for young teachers in this way. JobBridge seeks to exploit young teachers seeking employment by taking them on 6 or 9 month contracts for their dole plus an additional €50. If the welfare of young teachers is the principle concern of Deputy O’Riordain and the Labour Party, they would immediately reverse the previous government’s cut in special class teachers, resource teaching allocation and shelve the planned class size increase rumoured to be part of the upcoming budget, which could see a cut of up to 1,500 primary school posts.
People Before Profit have been contacted by a number of INTO members in the constituency who are angry at the attack by Deputy O’Riordain. The INTO’s decision took place after a long debate within the organisation and was taken in consultation with young, newly graduated teachers. For Deputy O’Riordain to claim that “in effect, what they INTO have done today is to rob these people of their dream of teaching in an Irish classroom” is disgraceful. The fact remains that JobBridge does not address the issue of unemployment for primary school teachers and in fact decisions made by this current government in terms of class size and special education have worsened the employment prospects of the very teachers that Deputy O’Riordain claims to be concerned for.
Speaking on the issue John Lyons, People Before Profit/United Left Alliance representative in Dublin North Central said: “This is a cycnical and disingenuous attack on a trade union, who have debated this issue at length and have rightly come out strongly against a scheme, JobBridge, which seeks to use the recession to take advantage vulnerable young teachers seeking employment. Rather than attacking trade union members for making a decision to defend their most vunerable members Deputy O’Riodain’s time would be better spent living up to the many pre-election promises of the Labour Party to defend the most vulnerable in society. Cuts in thea area of education have devasting long-term consequences for society and that is why the ULA is calling for an immediate reversal of the recent education cuts in the areas such as special education and visiting teacher services and an a clear indication from the government that class sizes will not increase. I would like to commend the INTO and the TUI for their stance on the issue of JobBridge and hope the ASTI and other unions follow suit.”
For confirmation/comment:
John Lyons 087 772 92 92