Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

For the benefit of everybody who needs to understand, I repeat, should the schools close on Monday indefinitely, it will be due not to the action of the teachers but of the Government. The ASTI is not planning action. Its members are just not working for something for which they are not getting paid. None of us here is working for something for which he or she is not getting paid. Very few people do. We are witnessing major anger at the slow unwinding of the FEMPI legislation. Nurses have to work an extra shift every six weeks under appallingly stressful conditions in a creaking health service that does not even allow nurses to work at an even pace when they are working for pay. This will spread across the public sector. It will not stay confined to teachers. There is a high level of disgruntlement and it boils down to equality. Teachers are working alongside people who are doing the same job on a completely different pay scale.

Equality must be restored not gradually but fully. You do not give Rosa Parks one fifth of a seat on the bus; you give her a whole seat, if you believe she should be treated equally. When women were fighting for equal pay, the Government would never have suggested giving them a portion of the pay they were entitled to. The Government should make a commitment to give full equal pay and set a date when it will be implemented. The dispute on Monday is not about teachers withdrawing. They are just refusing to work for nothing. The Government is closing the schools, and it must acknowledge this.

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