Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised that such a meeting has not taken place before now. There are difficulties on both sides and the ASTI leadership must reflect what its members have voted for and represent them but there must be value in talking and trying to resolve this because we face an administrative nightmare for the Minister and the Department. How will the Minister do this? Are we going to use the data protection forms that were signed by TUI members a couple of years ago or does the Minister have to reach out to TUI members again to ask them to certify that they are members of the TUI? Some schools are TUI and others are ASTI and there are quite a lot, particularly in the community and comprehensive sector, that are mixed union.

I do not know how the Minister is going to do it. What I do know is that if this dispute is not resolved and if it is simply the case that the ASTI repudiates and the Department institutes punishment or the consequences of that repudiation, there will be chaos in schools in September. There are no two ways about it and members and parents will be distinctly unhappy. There must be value in the Minister taking a grip of this issue and taking the lead on it with his colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, in order to resolve it. To me, it urgently needs to be resolved, with the issue of junior certificate reform.

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