Education (Leave for Injuries) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West I thank the Cathaoirleach. He is very diligent. This is important. The aim of the occupational health strategy is to promote the health and well-being of employees in the workplace, with a strong focus on prevention. The occupational health strategy comprises the employee assistance service, EAS, and the occupational health service. The employee assistance service is provided by Spectrum Life and is a self-referral service where school staff have access to a dedicated freefone confidential helpline. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The employee assistance service provides advice to all school staff on a range of issues, including well-being, bereavement, conflict and mediation. Where appropriate, short-term counselling sessions are available to staff and their family members. In circumstances where short-term counselling is determined to not be clinically appropriate, the EAS provides for interim counselling sessions while the staff member or his or her family member are awaiting engagement with specialised or open-ended services to ensure the individual feels supported and guided during the waiting period. Regarding this Bill, I absolutely believe the intention of the legislation is good. However, having read the Bill, it would be remiss of me not to highlight a number of issues and unintended consequences that would arise if the Bill is enacted as it currently stands. In the first instance, the Bill introduced would override the current leave of absence following assault scheme, which is in place for both teachers and SNAs, and the current occupational injury scheme in place for teachers. As previously mentioned, both of these schemes have been negotiated with education partners through the established industrial relations process in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. As the Senator has described, the Bill seeks to apply, among other provisions, to any scheme that is, or is to be, maintained by the Minister for Education and Youth providing for leave of absence from work following injury suffered by a teacher or SNA who is employed in an approved position of employment in a recognised school, to include: provision for immediate financial assistance to cover the medical and ancillary expenses of the teacher or SNA; subject to any relevant provisions, provisions for paid leave of absence from work for the duration of any period in respect of which a medical certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner is provided stating that the teacher or SNA is unable to return to work as a result of the injury concerned; and to provide for early retirement in cases of long-term or permanent incapacity to return to work. The Government does not oppose the reading of the Bill at this Stage but has concerns with a number of the proposed provisions. In particular, it is important to note the following: section 24(3) of the Education Act 1998, as amended, states: The terms and conditions of employment of the teachers and other staff of a recognised school, appointed by the board and who are, or who are to be, remunerated out of monies provided by the Oireachtas, shall be determined from time to time by the Minister, with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Amendments to the terms and conditions of employment of teachers and SNAs should be sought and negotiated via existing industrial relations mechanisms that have been set up in the education sector as detailed in section 7(4)( b ) of the Education Act. A number of industrial relations mechanisms have been established in the education sector. For teachers, this is done through a scheme of conciliation and arbitration for teachers, that is, the Teachers Conciliation Council. This scheme is not set out in statute. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a forum for Government, the managerial authorities of national and second level schools and the teacher unions for dealing with claims and proposals relating to the salaries and conditions of teachers and other specified education grades. This scheme is chaired by the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. If unresolved, matters can be referred to the arbitrator or adjudication board appointed under the terms of the scheme. For SNAs, the SNA IR forum was established to provide a mechanism for the parties to engage bilaterally and to avoid, to the best extent possible, issues escalating to the industrial relations machinery of the State, namely, the WRC or the Labour Court. The SNA IR forum is underpinned by agreed terms of reference and is managed within the Department. Members of this forum include trade union officials, officials from school management bodies and officials from my Department. If matters cannot be resolved bilaterally, they can be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission and, potentially, the Labour Court. The introduction of this Bill would be contrary to the provisions outlined and seeks to amend the terms and conditions of employment of teachers and SNAs by means of the introduction of this Bill, rather than via the existing industrial relations mechanisms in place. In addition, changes to non-statutory terms and conditions, such as the leave of absence following assault scheme and occupational injury scheme, can only be introduced through centrally agreed industrial relations agreements agreed between the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The existing agreement also contains a clause that unions will not submit cost-increasing claims during the lifetime of the current agreement. The provisions the Bill is seeking to introduce are significantly cost-increasing. For example, it proposes: expanding the provisions of the existing leave schemes as regards the period of paid leave of absence; extending the definition of an injury to include mental illness or injury - it should be noted that this provision is not provided for in any similar public sector scheme; extending provisions for injuries suffered other than those injuries currently covered by the leave of absence following assault scheme to SNAs; and the provision for immediate financial assistance to cover the medical and ancillary expenses of the teacher or SNA. The Bill also does not distinguish between who is the employer of teachers and SNAs. This is a key issue with the proposed Bill as it does not acknowledge the existing role of the employer in the proposed scheme as noted in primary legislation. Finally, the introduction of this Bill in its current form would likely see other unions throughout the Civil Service and public service seek to make amendments to the terms and conditions of the employees they represent through the introduction of other Bills, further undermining the existing industrial relations processes and the provisions of any nationally agreed public pay agreements. This is a Government that engages with education partners through the established IR mechanisms and within the terms and conditions of the agreed public sector pay agreement. As I said from the outset of my contribution tonight, and as I said to Sophie and Shane earlier, both I and Government are committed to doing what we can to support teachers and SNAs who may have been injured in the classroom. This is about ensuring that our response is one of compassion and fairness in the immediate aftermath of an injury and while they recover. I acknowledge the challenging role that teachers and SNAs undertake. I also want to acknowledge again that this Bill has been drafted with the very best intention by the Senators. I will work with Senators to find a resolution to the issues and concerns I have highlighted. My Department will continue to engage with education partners within the parameters of the established IR mechanism and the agreed public sector pay agreement. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18