Ruane defends Thailand trip

NEWS that Bernie Ruane, a Shannon Comprehensive School teacher, currently serving as president of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), had travelled to Bangkok for a conference provoked a mild media storm last weekend but Ms Ruane insists the trip was no junket and that important work was done.

Ms Ruane and TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin attended the conference on equality in education and speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, Ms Ruane said she had received no complaints from individual union members.
One report last weekend said the pair had decided to “abandon ship” while another said they had opted to “jet off” at a crucial time for the union.
However, Ms Ruane described the reporting of the matter “as a clear attempt at a smear” and said that tackling equality needs to be a priority for Irish education.
“The Irish education system is riven with inequality. This was a world conference and it was the first of its kind. The TUI has always been vocal on the hugely damaging effect of inequality in education.”
Ms Ruane said reports that her visit would delay a re-ballot of the union on the Croke Park deal were “rubbish” and that the timing of the vote would follow a meeting of the TUI Executive Committee on Saturday.
She said there had been a lot of exchange of ideas and information on tackling inequality at the conference.
“We can always learn from others and other education systems have gone through bad times and come through them. They told us about the approaches that they had used and we talked about our experiences.”
In a message posted on the TUI website, the union hit out at last weekend’s reporting of its leaders attendance of the conference.
“TUI condemns the inaccurate and scurrilous reporting of the attendance of union representatives at a world education conference in recent days. The intention of this is clearly to damage TUI and the wider trade union movement.
“The conference was the first of its kind, addressing the huge issues cause by inequality in education, which has a particularly strong resonance for TUI.
“TUI’s general secretary and president attended the conference with 400 other educationalists and trade unionists from over 90 countries and a full and complete report will be issued to members in due course.”