Government urged to reconsider cuts

A senior teaching union official in Clare is urging the Government to reconsider its position in relation to cost-cutting in the public service following the collapse of the Croke Park II proposals this week.

 

Primary and secondary teachers rejected the LRC proposals for a Revised Agreement on Pay and Reform in the public service.

The ballot of Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) members, announced on Tuesday, resulted in 30.5% in favour and 69.5% against. A total of 21,304 members of the union voted on the proposals, a return of 65%.

Sean McMahon, the INTO vice-president, said that while the union doesn’t break the figures down on a county-by-county basis “it is more than two to one against”.

“I would counsel the Government to go back and re-examine the totality of the scenario,” the Mullagh National School principal said.

“Trade Unions have consistently maintained that the high earners throughout society should be contributing accordingly and Government are continuing to travel the road of making the public service pay the price in relation to the sins of bankers, builders and failed Celtic Tiger institutions.

“It is not the public service the gardaí or the nurses that have generated the fiscal difficulties we have created and it is inappropriate that we are expected to pay for same,” Mr McMahon said.

“Teachers did engage with Croke Park I and we were one of the first unions in the country to see the merits and need for Croke Park and did ensure that the savings, as enunciated, were made and now the Government is coming back to the same part of the population,” he added.

Mr McMahon would not be drawn on the next step for national school teachers in Clare. “First and foremost these results are fresh and the executive is meeting on Thursday and Friday and there is an absolutely solid basis by INTO members for the rejection of the package.

“We had a series of meetings throughout the country including in Ennis. People have not gone down this road without considering the possibility of the Government going down the legislation route and the trade union movement including teachers are making a firms statement that they will resist this,” he said.

The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) also voted to reject the LRC proposals by 85% to 15%. The turnout for the ballot was 62%.

“The ballot result mirrors the deep anger expressed by teachers at the unfairness of these proposals,” said ASTI general secretary Pat King.

“Teachers have already taken significant cuts in pay and have made a substantial contribution to the achievement of savings in education through the Croke Park Agreement. New teachers have been subjected to an inferior pay scale while schools have been stripped of vital funding and staffing resources. Teachers are saying ‘no’ to public sector workers being singled out for further unfair treatment,” he concluded.

The country’s other teaching union, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), rejected the proposals last month.