Madam,– We now know, thanks to the Irish Times survey of school managers, principals and teacher unions, that the true effects of the Budget cuts last autumn will be much closer to 2,000 fewer teachers for our young people than the figure of 300 which the Minister for Education repeated over and over again. Your Education Editor, Seán Flynn,raises the interesting question of whether the campaign on school cuts has shot its bolt and whether the Government might now respond to moral pressure to rescind them (Opinion, August 28th).
However, a very powerful financial argument exists which demonstrates that the true cost of keeping a teacher unemployed is almost equal to the cost of employment. When income tax, pension contributions, PRSI, income levies, health levies and the pension levies are deducted from salary, then the take-home pay is almost equal to what it costs the State to provide unemployment benefit,rent allowance and a medical card.When the McCarthy report recommended reductions in our public service in order to effect so-called savings, there was no calculation made for the subsequent loss of income tax and levies to the coffers of the State. Neither was the cost of funding the then newly unemployed. – Yours, etc,