Primary teacher union INTO is to push for a special allowance to be paid to teachers working in cities to compensate for higher living costs there.
At its annual congress in Killarney, delegates instructed the union to negotiate with the Department of Education for additional payments similar to allowances paid in London to help teachers under pressure from high rental costs.
The INTO says the cost of living and housing crises have placed additional financial pressures on teachers. Typically, people living in cities such as Dublin pay more, not only on rent or housing purchase but also on costs like childcare.
In London, teachers and other key workers receive an additional allowance to help them meet additional costs.
Compared to a teacher working elsewhere in the UK, a teacher in London gets an additional between €7,500 and €1,500 annually, depending on whether they are working in the inner London area or in outer London or its wider periphery.
Such allowances are designed to encourage key workers to take up jobs in the English capital.
The INTO is the first teacher union here to formally adopt a position seeking such an allowance.
The development comes amid growing concern about teacher shortages in many parts of the country but most particularly in Dublin and other urban areas where rents are now regarded as too high for many workers.
Dublin has traditionally attracted newly qualified teachers who may have studied in the capital and who choose to remain there for at least their first few years as young teachers.
However, as the housing crisis has impacted Dublin, primary schools have found it ever harder to find staff to fill vacant posts or even to work as substitutes.
At all three teacher trade union conferences this week teachers and their representatives highlighted the cost of living and exorbitant rents as key factors behind young teachers choosing to emigrate.
At the Teachers' Union of Ireland annual congress in Cork, members supported calls for 100% compensation for homeowners affected by the issue of defective blocks in homes, particularly in Co Donegal, after a motion from local teachers outlining the impact on themselves, their students and communities.
On day three of the congress, delegates are also debating the provision of free public transport and support for a major national campaign of action on housing, as well as motions on equality, health and Safety, and pensions.
Dublin-based teacher considers move abroad
Róisín Ní Chaisín works as a supply teacher in Dublin. She is on a substitute panel that is supposed to cover absences across ten primary schools in the Dublin 15 area.
However, such is the scarcity of teachers in the capital that this panel - like others across the city - is half empty.
"There should be eight teachers on the panel but we only have four, and two of those teachers are unqualified," Róisín says, "we just can't find teachers to fill those positions".
She says four is nowhere near enough to cover vacancies across ten schools. As a result she finds that sometimes she is called to cover for two teachers in a school, asked to teach two classes put together for the day or longer.
And now her landlord has told her that she may have to leave her accommodation by the end of the summer. He says he may want to relet it.
"Financially, permanent independence is almost impossible," Róisín says.
She is about to make a big decision.
"I am thinking of emigrating in September, to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Qatar."
'Dream' to return to Ireland
Michaela Boyle and Ciara Callaghan have already gone. The friends from Donegal are both currently teaching in the United Arab Emirates.
Michaela says it would be her "dream" to return to Ireland and Dublin in particular. She says the main barrier to her doing so is the cost of accommodation.
Michaela returned home during the pandemic and worked in a school in Dublin for two years. She says the school she worked in was "fantastic".
"But we were six girls living in one house, all of us in our late 20s and 30s. I was paying €700 a month for a box room, and then bills on top of that. It was extremely difficult."
So last year she went back to Dubai.
Of the six young teachers living in that one house, Michaela says that four have since emigrated to the UAE.
"There are still two left in Dublin but they have just handed in their notice and they will be heading off too at the end of this school year," she says.
In the UAE both Ciara and Michaela pay no tax on their earnings of between €3,500 and €4,000 a month. Their high-quality accommodation is free. Other perks include free healthcare.
Michaela, who is a niece of INTO General Secretary John Boyle, says housing is the "number one barrier" to her returning home.
For her to contemplate returning "there would need to be housing that we as teachers can afford," she says.
Would a Dublin allowance help?
Michaela says it would be "a good start".
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'Some degree of distress'
Meanwhile, the head of the education division at the Fórsa union has said that some of the organisation's 18,000 members struggle to afford to put fuel into their car at the end of the working week.
The cost of living crisis and the need to establish better progression to higher level for students with additional needs, are just some of the key issues being raised by Fórsa as its Education Division Conference gets underway in Portlaoise today.
The union represents education workers including SNAs, school secretaries and caretakers and administrative staff in Education and Training Boards and technological universities.
Their members are among the lowest paid staff in the education sector.
"They are facing pressures to do with the rising cost of accommodation," Andy Pike told RTÉ's News at One.
"They are noticing that the price of foodstuffs has increased significantly.
"We are receiving queries from members who are in some degree of distress around can they afford to put diesel in the car to get to work on the Friday?
"They are really feeling the effects of the cost-of-living in many different ways.
"They are also raising with us, here at our conference, the effects on students who they are working with.
"It's not only low paid public servants who are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis. Our members are increasingly concerned at the effect on students who they see in schools and colleges.
"They feel that those who are most vulnerable are feeling the effect of this cost-of-living crisis most acutely.
"Members are increasingly worried about what the future holds in terms of just their ability to get by."
Additional reporting Jennie O'Sullivan
