Squeezed Middle: ‘The cost of living in Dublin is crazy’

[ Meet the Voters series ]

I live weekdays in Portlaoise where myself and my wife bought a house when she got a job in the area.

We had planned to move back to Clare, where my wife is from, and she found a position as a primary school teacher in 2008. Then the recession hit, and the recruitment moratorium was introduced, which has prevented me from moving. We have two children, a five-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. I only see them at weekends and holidays when I go back to Co Clare.

I’ve been working as a history and geography teacher in Blackrock in Co Dublin for the past 14 years, and I commute every day from Portlaoise.

There are tens of thousands of people doing this commute. It takes me an hour door to door, but I leave at 6.15am to skip the traffic and get in early and go for a swim in the school pool. It gets tiring, but as a teacher I don’t go longer than seven weeks without a week off, so that gives me a break. I spend about €300 on diesel a month which is a considerable expense.

As a teacher you do not get bonuses or big promotions, but you expect your pay packet will remain set. But teachers’ take home pay is down about 20 per cent since the recession.

We are part of the squeezed middle. The recession has been difficult, but there are people worse off. I have friends who lost jobs and their homes.

I have much less disposable income now. Between pay cuts and a mortgage, holidays have been limited, but I have enough to pay my bills, and my health insurance.

I am not motivated by local issues; education policy is my main concern when it comes to politics. I have sometimes voted Fianna Fáil depending on the candidate, but I would almost always vote Labour.

I am seriously questioning voting for them this time because I think the outgoing Government’s education strategy has been a disaster and so I have an open mind about who I will vote for.

I would prefer a government with a few more Independents.

I accept Labour was in coalition, so it wasn’t necessarily their programme for government which has been followed. To give them credit where it is due, they have protected core social welfare payments. But I am assessing them on their performance in education. We’ve had two Labour education ministers. Both have had a tunnel vision approach and have not listened to teachers.

I am a member of ASTI and so I am in favour of education reform, but it must be the right type. It is hard to understand why the government insists on a steroidal reform agenda when schools are hemorrhaging from cutbacks and teacher morale is very low as a result.

We have been shouting for a long time about problems with the new Junior Cert, but have been consistently ignored. The idea of teaching a common level to everyone instead of higher and ordinary level will demoralise the top students, and those who are struggling.

The humanities are being completely sidelined in favour of a narrower focus on literacy and numeracy, which will leave our students lacking cultural and intellectual capital.

Cuts to guidance councillors has also had a huge impact on students, and on teachers too. If you have a student with any sort of a mental issue, from just having a bad day up to suicidal tendencies, the person you would send them to is now gone.

Another big issue for me is the fact that new teachers have to start on a different salary scale. I do not think that is fair and it has to be addressed. Now that the economy is growing, it is time to give people back what they deserve.

Builders and bankers and politicians destroyed the country, but teachers have to do all these extra hours now. It was one thing to introduce added taxes, but to add to our workload as well has been demoralising.

I paid my water charges because I can, but they affect people on lower incomes most. I don’t think they should have to pay the same as those earning more. I would be in favour of a more equitable society.

The cost of childcare is astronomical, and that has to be addressed by the next government. The introduction of the “free” pre-school year made a difference, but not a big difference, because it only pays for a half-day. Most workers don’t finish at 1pm. It was political spin, making it sound better than it actually was.

We were lucky that the age gap was big enough and we didn’t have two kids in crèche at the same time. We pay €640 per month for one child, but it would be over €1,000 in Dublin. I think there needs to be a Dublin allowance for workers in the capital. The cost of living in Dublin is crazy, which is why we decided to base ourselves in Clare rather than Dublin.

I think teachers will be very slow to vote for Fine Gael or Labour in this election. The question in staff rooms at the moment is, who do we vote for instead?

Some will still vote Labour, as the best of a bad bunch, and others may even forgive Fianna Fáil. Renua would be toxic to almost every teacher and civil servant in the country.

With their tax policies, there would be no money at all to pay for public services. Sinn Féin still has a lot of baggage. So I think Independents will do very well in this election.

Constituency: Clare

Enda Whelton was in conversation with Ciara Kenny

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