I have just updated to the latest available version of confluence 5.1.5 however I've encountered a bug that seems to have occurred previously:

https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/103858/confluence-save-button-is-not-visible-in-internet-explorer
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Editor+footer+is+missing+when+editing+a+page+containing+table+in+IE

However in my case the Tiny MCE Editor is fully enabled and I can't see the jira-connector plugin. I do have the JIRA Macros plugin but I am unable to enable it. It occurs with IE 8&9 but editing in Chrome and Firefox is fine. Temp solution is after editing page to reduce the zoom level from 100% to 75% and then back again and the buttons reappear however this has to be done by all users upon every edit.