Dublin teachers should be paid more to help tackle the recruitment crisis, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said. 

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland has said there is an “unsustainable” shortage of teachers in Ireland and it is particularly severe in the capital where young teachers struggle to find affordable accommodation. 

The Labour Party believes that paying teachers a higher wage in Dublin would help alleviate the problem. 

“There are literally schools in Dublin that are screaming out for teachers and they’re not really in a position to run their schools effectively,” Deputy Ó Ríordáin told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“What happens with schools is they are less likely to come forward and talk about it because [it does] reputational damage to the school - it gives the impression that people don’t want to teach in the school. 

“But there’s a massive shortage of teachers in primary and second-level in Dublin and it is happening across the country as well but it’s most acute in Dublin.” 

A school teacher next to piles of classroom books.

Britain introduced an extra allowance for public servants who work in London in the 1920s to help them offset the extra costs that come with living in such an expensive city. 

Deputy Ó Ríordáin believes this is the model that Ireland should consider too. 

“They’ve had a salary weighting for those public servants - not just teachers - in inner and outer London,” he said. 

“In London, there’s a different weighting between inner and outer London. 

“It can be a 16% increase for outer London, it could be as high as 25% within the inner part of London. 

“I don’t think we’re talking about that; if we were talking even on the level of 5%.” 

The Labour Party believes this would cost €21 million a year and the scheme could be rolled out across the public sector if successful. 

“You have to balance [that €21 million] against the cost of not having nurses available in our hospitals, not having teachers available in our schools, not having Guards on our streets,” Deputy Ó Ríordáin said. 

Main image: A teacher with her pupils. Picture by: Alamy.com