Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe there is an alternative practice. Even in this dispute, if there is a ruling that there is a withdrawal from working the Croke Park agreement hours, which are designed to have provision where all teachers are available to meet with parents and avoid disruption to the schedule, that objective cannot be delivered if all teachers are not participating. In effect, we cannot deliver the gains intended by these agreements if the main representative union is not co-operating with the model being offered.

We cannot deliver, de facto, the gains that were negotiated so it is impossible to derive the benefits of the agreement within that school . It is not practical to run general events using the Croke Park hours if 80% do not turn up. That is the difficulty. It is not something caught in the annals of time. It has very practical implications for our ability to use a collective agreement to deliver improvements for the children and parents in the school. There is an underlying reason for it.