Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Parents of secondary school students are very concerned following the ASTI's rejection of the Haddington Road agreement and the very real possibility of industrial action commencing on 2 October. I do not know about the Taoiseach but I do not believe for a second that any teacher wants to strike or to engage in industrial action. Teachers want to teach and deliver the best education to their students. We all know education is being damaged by the Government's austerity approach with the loss of classroom teachers, the withdrawal of guidance services and the tying up of teachers' time and energy with extra administrative work. It is these actions, not the actions of teachers, that have caused damage to our children's education.

Rather than address these concerns and those of parents, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, true to the form of the Taoiseach's Government, charged in like a school yard bully and escalated the situation by threatening compulsory redundancies. Let us remind ourselves that this is the same Minister who presides yet again over chaos in SUSI, who broke basic promises on student fees and who is currently considering increasing primary school class sizes.

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