Longford teacher and INTO President Carmel Browne slams O'Leary's remarks as ‘outrageous’

“The Dáil is full of teachers, nothing wrong with teachers - I love teachers I have four children, but I wouldn't generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done.”

Those were the words of Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary at a Fine Gael event last week.

The airline boss had been attending the campaign launch of Minister Peter Burke when the comment was made.

The statement triggered outrage from teachers and their unions across the country and sparked a huge reaction on both National media and online.

The President of the Irish National Teaching Organisation (INTO) and Melview National School, Longford teacher Carmel Browne was less than impressed with the remarks.

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“I suppose they were the kind of comments that were quite outrageous,” said Carmel.

“They were comments that were very dismissive of teachers and the teaching community and I suppose, generally they came from somebody in a very different vein of life.

“The reaction on social media shows how the school community have responded.

“From our point of view, teachers work extremely hard all the time and they’re an integral part of the community,” explains Carmel, “They’re also very well respected in the community.”

“When I was thinking about this, I realised that one thing that teachers do as well as working hard at their schools, is volunteering.

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“There’s a huge amount of volunteerism that teachers engage within their local communities.”

Carmel discussed the response from politicians regarding O’Leary’s comments.

“I suppose the Taoiseach removed himself from the comments but I haven’t heard anything from any local Fine Gael representatives.”

When asked whether the comments made would sway how the school community would vote Carmel said, “I think what's most likely to change people's views on the election is how the parties engage with the Manifesto and what they're going to do for education in the coming five years.

“In schools, teachers are overburdened a lot at the moment with their workload and a lack of support for people in special education. There is a lack of therapeutic support, which we have been calling for a long time to be enhanced and increased.

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“We want to combat the teacher supply issue in some areas, we’re keen to find some initiatives to improve that.

“Restructuring the salary scale is one area that could improve the supply issue and encourage five per cent of teachers who are abroad to come home,” explains Carmel.

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Special Education is also a key area the INTO Manifesto is going to be focused on.

“As always with support for children in Special Education and children generally in school.

“We’re looking for class sizes to be reduced to 19 which is a commitment made by some of the government parties in the last election.

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“If the classes are smaller then all children will get better resources and better resources that are there.”

Improvement of Special Education resources has been a major focus of Carmel’s tenure as INTO president.

“Therapeutic supports in schools to further the Mental Health Pilot in schools and then to support the children in our special schools by restoring the supports, the therapeutic supports and the psychological supports that were available to those schools before being taken away in austerity times in 2011.

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“We would be calling for them to be restored and then for children to be getting into the right settings as quick as possible,” she concluded.