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Should there be an extra allowance for teaching in Dublin?

  • 18-09-2014 8:17pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭


    This has been on my mind for a while. I have a permanent job in Dublin but I'm currently living in Donegal while on career break. I haven't lived at home in Donegal since I was at school and the difference in the cost of living is phenomenal. Everything is so much cheaper down here from crèche fees, rent, house prices, eating out, parking etc.

    I'm due back at work next September. I priced a crèche for my daughter and in Dublin, it would cost me €960 per month. Down here, my local crèche costs €600 per month. The house I rented in Dublin two years ago cost us €1,000 per month. The landlord told me it's currently being rented out at €1,200!

    I know in London, they give teachers an extra allowance for working in the city as it's so much more expensive than anywhere else in England. I think this should be the case in Dublin too. In my opinion, this is something that the INTO should push for. Anyone else in agreement?


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 5,178 ✭✭✭killbillvol2


    Sweet Rose wrote: »
    This has been on my mind for a while. I have a permanent job in Dublin but I'm currently living in Donegal while on career break. I haven't lived at home in Donegal since I was at school and the difference in the cost of living is phenomenal. Everything is so much cheaper down here from crèche fees, rent, house prices, eating out, parking etc.

    I'm due back at work next September. I priced a crèche for my daughter and in Dublin, it would cost me €960 per month. Down here, my local crèche costs €600 per month. The house I rented in Dublin two years cost us €1,000 per month. The landlord told me it's currently being rented out at €1,200!

    I know in London, they give teachers an extra allowance for working in the city as it's so much more expensive than anywhere else in England. I think this should be the case in Dublin too. In my opinion, this is something that the INTO should push for. Anyone else in agreement?

    This has been thrashed out on numerous occasions within INTO. Motions were repeatedly submitted to Congress. Guess what? It didn't go down too well with the country cousins and never got anywhere. It has two chances of getting anywhere in the current climate.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,818 ✭✭✭Inspector Coptoor


    Yes, they should.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,033 ✭✭✭OU812


    Honestly, if you feel that way about it, work in Donegal. if you don't want to pay the premium for living in the capital, live & work outside it.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 4,475 Mod ✭✭✭✭dory


    I agree. There should (and I don't live or work in Dublin). Can't see it happening though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,663 ✭✭✭MouseTail


    dory wrote: »
    I agree. There should (and I don't live or work in Dublin). Can't see it happening though.

    No, it wont happen. Rolled out just for teachers, for key staff, for all public servants? What about Cork and Galway etc. The only reason it would happen is schools finding it impossible to fill vacancies, and that is not going to happen for several years.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭Sweet Rose


    OU812 wrote: »
    Honestly, if you feel that way about it, work in Donegal. if you don't want to pay the premium for living in the capital, live & work outside it.

    I would love to work in Donegal but jobs are few and far between. I would feel like I had win the lottery if I got a job here. Hopefully I will in the near future. Why would I want to basically live in poverty in the capital.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,345 ✭✭✭Rackstar


    Should there be a cut for teachers in areas with a lower cost of living?

    Only way I can see an allowance being introduced is if the government can't get the teachers to fill the posts in areas with a higher cost of living. Is there problems getting them at the moment?


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,812 ✭✭✭acequion


    Well I'm one of the country cousins,way down in the south west and I fully agree that teachers in Dublin should receive an allowance as capital city public servants do in many of the more civilised,more citizen friendly countries.I taught in Brussels and received such an allowance. I did teach for a while in Dublin,but mainly on a subbing basis and I always found it very hard to manage on a teacher's pay. That was long before prices went crazy,so I honestly don't know how you guys in Dublin manage nowadays,especially with all the pay cuts and tax hikes.Money definitely goes further outside Dublin,though it's still hard.

    But considering the treatment of all public servants in recent years and the 'reform' agenda,pigs would fly before the neo liberals that govern this country would even consider it.If we can hang on to what we have and get out with some sort of pension,we'll be lucky


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,033 ✭✭✭OU812


    Sweet Rose wrote: »
    Why would I want to basically live in poverty in the capital.

    Why should you get paid extra to work here ? I live & work in Dublin & don't get a premium for doing so.

    Let me be straight here, I love what teachers do, teachers, nurses, firefighters & garda, should be paid more than they are, but by no means should they get an "extra allowance" for working in the capital.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    Well, if teachers are being cajoled into teaching through jobsbridge just to 'get experience' then there aint no hope of ever getting a stipend because of a postal address.

    If anything they'd just cook up some program/panel of shipping NQT/temp. teachers around the country to plug the gaps. and call it an induction program.

    Other than that .. I'm all for it.... any teacher I know without family ties in Dublin is keen to get out of Dublin, Primarily because of the cost of living (in comparison to anywhere else).


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭RealJohn


    I'm living and working in Dublin and, much as I'd love to get an extra allowance for it, there's no justifying it. Like has been pointed out, Galway, Cork and presumably the other cities are expensive too and then, in the arse end of nowhere it's cheap because people don't want to live there. I say the teachers who live in more isolated areas deserve the savings they make as a reward for working in 'less desireable' places.

    The benefits of living in Dublin (or other cities) outweigh the costs anyway in my opinion. I have a choice of several hospitals to choose from, loads of different schools for if and when I have kids (and employment possibilities if I need them), loads to do, whether I want to join sports clubs or just have a quiet park to go for a walk in. I've lived in more rural places. I couldn't stick it in the long term, even without the lure of extra money for working in Dublin. The numbers willing to work, and more importantly, willing to stay working, in rural schools would drop in a big way if there was an allowance for working in Dublin.

    I'd love to get more money since I'm not planning to leave Dublin anytime soon anyway but for me, it's a non-runner.


  • Registered Users Posts: 214 ✭✭brónaim cád??


    I've been thinking this too. I've just come back to Ireland after teaching in London. I think we received an extra £7000 for London weighting. The cost of living in Dublin is completely different to let's say Leitrim and wages need to reflect that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,812 ✭✭✭acequion


    RealJohn wrote: »
    I'm living and working in Dublin and, much as I'd love to get an extra allowance for it, there's no justifying it. Like has been pointed out, Galway, Cork and presumably the other cities are expensive too and then, in the arse end of nowhere it's cheap because people don't want to live there. I say the teachers who live in more isolated areas deserve the savings they make as a reward for working in 'less desireable' places.

    The benefits of living in Dublin (or other cities) outweigh the costs anyway in my opinion. I have a choice of several hospitals to choose from, loads of different schools for if and when I have kids (and employment possibilities if I need them), loads to do, whether I want to join sports clubs or just have a quiet park to go for a walk in. I've lived in more rural places. I couldn't stick it in the long term, even without the lure of extra money for working in Dublin. The numbers willing to work, and more importantly, willing to stay working, in rural schools would drop in a big way if there was an allowance for working in Dublin.

    I'd love to get more money since I'm not planning to leave Dublin anytime soon anyway but for me, it's a non-runner.

    Speak for yourself there RealJohn as there are many who would disagree with you and we could turn this into a real country versus city debate. The point being different strokes for different folks and both environments have their pros and their cons.[I've done both]

    But the point is that the cost of living in Dublin,as a capital, is higher than in the rest of the country,big urban centres like Cork and Galway included. As is the case in other European countries. Now I don't generally follow the establishment touted idea that all things should be harmonised throughout Europe,used as a stick to beat us with when they spot some place with lower wages than us. But if used as a stick,the argument also stands as a plus.If other European countries pay an allowance for working in the capital,then why not Ireland?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,525 ✭✭✭gaiscioch


    No doubt about it but my real income would be ridiculously higher if I were not living in Dublin, where I am stuck due to family commitments. Most of all, the maths do not add up when it comes to getting a mortgage. It needs two incomes to get a fairly mediocre house in Dublin, where my own teacher's income would suffice to get a mortgage on a considerably larger house outside Dublin.

    For sure, Dublin as a city has numerous advantages but none of them (except, perhaps, quick access to a hospital in the event of an emergency), for me, make it worth paying so much more for the property. Unfortunately, the principal reason I am not applying for a job in one of the many lovely parts of rural Ireland is because of family commitments here. I probably will never be able to buy a house here as my other half is in massive negative equity from bubble times and my own salary will only get me a mortgage for €220,000. So it's a lifetime of renting in a mediocre part of Dublin for me unless something changes radically.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,088 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    I would be quicker to support danger money for teachers in certain schools all over the country than a city allowance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭RealJohn


    spurious wrote: »
    I would be quicker to support danger money for teachers in certain schools all over the country than a city allowance.
    The only problem with this idea is that some students might see it as a license to target teachers.

    I'd say that if there was extra money going for that that it should go on security staff rather than extra pay for teaching staff.


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