Teachers’ unions meeting in Galway and elsewhere this week were deeply divided on the issue of the controversial public service pay and reform deal with a small majority at the INTO conference accepting the deal while both the TUI and ASTI delegates rejected it.
During the three day INTO conference, which since Monday has brought nearly €5 million to the local economy, 750 delegates gathered at the Salthill Hotel to discuss a number of issues. On Tuesday, in a private session, an emergency motion calling for the union’s executive to recommend that members vote against the pay deal was rejected by just four votes - 308 to 304. However, despite this there is still a possibility that the 30,000 INTO members nationwide could reject the deal when they have their say through a ballot vote.
It was a different situation in Ennis, Co Clare, where the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI ) congress unanimously rejected the pay deal on Tuesday. While TUI was voting, 500 delegates gathered for the beginning of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI ) national conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway. Yesterday a motion calling for the union’s executive to recommend the rejection of the pay deal was unanimously passed. A spokesperson for ASTI told the Advertiser that the executive council will meet tomorrow [Friday] to make a decision on whether to accept the pay deal or reject it, and if members nationwide should be balloted.
Speaking following the result of the vote at the INTO meeting, Galway branch secretary and teacher at Scoil Einde in Salthill, Michael Gallagher, explained that “this is not the final outcome of the decision making” as it will now be up to members nationwide to vote on the issue. Giving an indication of how members were feeling, Mr Gallagher said: “The Government cannot be trusted, it has no credibility. They said there will be no pay cut until 2014 but we cannot trust the [pay deal] agreement.”
Mr Gallagher said that teachers are frustrated and angry at the education cuts. He said that delegates appealed to Education Minister Mary Coughlan, during her visit to the conference, to reduce class sizes, provide more resources for special needs, and provide money for new building structures.
Just two weeks after her appointment Minister Coughlan arrived at the INTO conference on Tuesday where she was confronted by placards. The Tanaiste’s speech was punctuated by heckling and jeering from the teachers who were determined to put her on the naughty step. However, Minister Coughlan persevered and doggedly continued with her speech defending the Government’s unpopular decisions and calling for teachers to pull together during these hard times.
“Believe me when I say that having to commit so much capital to our banking system at a time when we have to cut spending across Government is something that angers me greatly, just as it does you. But believe me also when I say that there is no other more cost effective or rational option available to us to secure the viability of our financial and banking system... The bottom line is that we need to get credit flowing in our economy again. We need a stable banking system to restart economic growth. And we need to return to a sustainable path of economic growth so that, in the long term, we can sustain our public finances and the level of investment we want to commit to frontline areas such as education,” Minister Coughlan told delegates.
Minister Coughlan went on to explain that a further €3 billion in adjustments will be required in the next Budget and that less will have to be spent on public services for the forseeable future. Minister Coughlan then welcomed the pay deal agreement concluded last week in Croke Park.
“Social cohesion must be maintained and we have to actively guard against the creation of dangerous divisions. The phoney division between public sector Ireland and private sector Ireland so regurgitated by the commentariat must be dispelled. The reality is that each is reliant on the other and that this is a difficult time for everyone living in this country,” she said.
