Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

This Government is committed to protecting the Croke Park agreement today and the protection of teachers' pay tomorrow. However, pay makes up 80% of the total spend in education so cuts have to be found somewhere. The INTO is in danger of playing into the hands of Fianna Fáil, which cut 15% of their members' pay in the past, by seeming to refuse to engage constructively in a discussion on how to manage the current need to cut expenditure while ensuring that the quality of our education is not affected. Doing so would make the case for further pay cuts inevitable and that is the real plan of this motion.

See this speech in context