Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today, 507 secondary schools throughout the country are closed, which represent 70% of secondary schools in the country, as 17,500 secondary school teachers are on strike and approximately 250,000 pupils are being told to stay at home, with the inconvenience added to their families. This is all because the Government has sleepwalked us into a situation with the ASTI and it is on strike. Pupils are being denied an education and they are the victims in what is another industrial relations shambles under the watch of the Government. We have been saying for weeks the Government should seize the initiative and prevent this strike by teachers.

At the beginning of the week, the ASTI asked for reassurance from the Government on teachers receiving equality of treatment in their pay. This is a relatively reasonable request, one would imagine, and it would have reassured the ASTI that the Government has an interest in resolving the dispute so that schools could open today. My colleague, Deputy Thomas Byrne, has called consistently on the Minister, Deputy Bruton, to confirm a pathway on how teachers will have equality of pay treatment, now and after 2018. This would not have to be outside the Lansdowne Road agreement and may have created the conditions to avoid today's strike and, more importantly, to avoid what is coming.

What is coming is even more serious and detrimental to the country. The Joint Managerial Body has issued a warning that next Monday week, after the mid-term break, many schools may not be able to reopen. The country is facing complete and utter shut down of the secondary education system unless a resolution is found. Instead of creating the conditions to resolve this and seeking to build trust to resolve and avoid it, the Government has chosen a provocative and aggressive strategy by issuing a circular that ASTI members will not be paid if they withdraw from supervision and substitution. This circular has inflamed an already serious situation. To add confusion to the already chaotic situation, a spokesperson on behalf of the Minister stated that pay will only be deducted from ASTI members where schools cannot open. I understand the staff of 375 schools are comprised entirely of ASTI members and 150 schools are dual union. Will the Tánaiste clarify which of the schools will open on Monday week? How many students will be inconvenienced on Monday week because of the Government's inability to come up with a contingency plan or to create the conditions where a resolution could be found?

The Tánaiste is the deputy head of the Government. Is it not time for the Government to commit to pay equality for newly qualified teachers? Look at the seriousness of the situation. Today the Irish Independentstates that depending on whether teachers were recruited in 2013, 2014 or 2015 they could be on three different pay scales. Is it not time to commit to proper equality?

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