Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is important in any discussion of the Haddington Road agreement to remember the context within which this agreement came into being. This Government on coming to office inherited a financial situation of the most extreme gravity. Essentially, the country had lost its economic sovereignty, and as a Government we were obliged to look at all possible options for retrieving the situation, while at the same time maintaining, to the greatest extent possible, solidarity across all sectors of our community.

The State is still in a very serious financial and budgetary situation. We have to meet the very stringent public deficit targets placed on the Exchequer by the troika. Savings must be made in every area of public spending and a proportionate element of those savings must come from the public service pay and pensions bill.

I have said on many occasions that I have the greatest respect for the role and contribution of public servants in this country. I greatly value the role of teachers and appreciate the importance of their day-to-day work for the well-being of young people and, by extension, for the well-being of this country. ASTI members have voted in a ballot to reject the Haddington Road agreement and voted for industrial action up to and including strike action. ASTI has decided to begin that action next Wednesday, as the Deputy said. This action will see ASTI members withdraw from all meetings outside school hours, refuse to participate in training for the new junior cycle and not take on any management responsibilities without additional pay.

The Haddington Road agreement has been pursued as one final contribution from public servants towards securing our economic recovery. It has always been the preference of this Government to have a negotiated agreement on how to achieve the savings we require from the public pay bill. I am, therefore, extremely disappointed that the ASTI has not accepted the agreement. Need I remind the House that it is the only public service union to have taken that position?

The Government has sought to reach an agreement that allows substantial costs to be extracted and enhances public service productivity to the benefit of all those who rely on public services while also ensuring that savings are achieved in a way that is broadly equitable and that has the greatest impact on those who are best able to afford it. The principle of making sure the burden was shared by all sectors and that those on more pay would pay more was paramount in the discussions which led to the formulation of the agreement.

The Haddington Road agreement is public-service-wide in its application and follows from a protracted period of very intensive negotiations involving the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and teacher and various other unions, which took place against a backdrop of continuing significant difficulties in the finances of the State. My colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has made it clear in his comments on this matter that given this overall context, there can be no renegotiation of this agreement.

Teaching is a valued and important profession in Ireland and I am glad that agreement has been reached with three of the four trade unions representing teachers and lecturers in Ireland, namely, INTO, TUI and IFUT. I ask ASTI to examine the costs to its members of remaining outside the Haddington Road agreement and to reflect upon this matter again. The Haddington Road agreement is a negotiated way of reducing the impact of the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation as far as possible across the public service. The impact to individual ASTI members of remaining outside the Haddington Road agreement will be the full impact of the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation.

In addition to the monetary impact on individual teachers, the Haddington Road agreement also provides additional benefits for young teachers, particularly with regard to securing permanent status as teachers, a matter to which we referred earlier. All of this represents a major impact on ASTI members relative to other teachers. The decision by ASTI to remain outside the Haddington Road agreement and to withdraw from existing commitments means that the protections and benefits of the agreement, including those in regard to security of tenure, are not available to its members. This will be a matter of concern to many teachers and underlines the strong case for reconsideration by ASTI of the situation.

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