Mr. Andy Pike:

I thank the Deputy. I will respond to a question Deputy Coppinger asked. We have looked at the legal issues here. There are some stark legal problems the employer side, the Department, would have. Our difficulty is that the last case on pensions brought by a union in the schools' sector was the Mary Boyle case, and the Department of education simply appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court. Therefore, for those members we have who are within five years of retirement, the legal route is not going to be helpful. The Department could string out a legal case for ten years. The Boyle case took that long to reach a final conclusion.

In response to Deputy Jen Cummins's question as to what we would ask the committee, I would say the support is really welcomed by all our members. If we consider a caretaker in a school, the school might employ 50 teachers and 20 SNAs, but there is going to be only one person in that workplace involved in this strike. It is a really brave thing for our members to say they are going to do this. Please keep up that level of support.