Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday there were secondary schools closed across the country. Today there are secondary schools closed across the country. It is happening for a number of reasons, including fundamentally because there was a failure to engage early and effectively on the secondary school strikes and the situation pertaining to the ASTI and the issues it had raised. The first issue relates to equal pay for newly qualified teachers. For some reason, the Government has not committed publicly to finding a pathway towards equal pay for newly qualified teachers, which would go a long way towards dealing with the issue, on which the TUI and the INTO made progress. I warned last week that the system might have wanted to punish the ASTI for staying outside the Lansdowne Road agreement and said it should resist that temptation, but it has not. We are now in a situation where feelings are becoming more entrenched and resolving the dispute could become more difficult.

The second issue, in terms of yesterday's closure of secondary schools, relates to substitution and supervision. The ASTI is looking for flexibility on the Croke Park agreement hours, on which some flexibility has been shown to the TUI and the INTO. I support the Lansdowne Road agreement and accept that everything has to be resolved under it, but there is provision in it for flexibility on the Croke Park agreement hours. Before any Lansdowne Road or Croke Park agreement was made, teachers had been engaged in extracurricular activities for a long time. There are many good teachers who are brassed off when officialdom tells them to pencil in this and that because, frankly, they have been doing it for years when it comes to sport, music, debating and cultural activities. We should keep this fact at the backs of our heads. That contribution by teachers has always been made. The issue of substitution and supervision can be dealt with if there is the will to do so and there is a way under the Lansdowne Road agreement.

My third point is that leaving certificate and junior certificate students are suffering too much. They are the real victims of this industrial dispute. We know about the centrality of the leaving certificate examinations and how difficult and challenging it is for any student in his or her leaving certificate year. The absence of contingency planning led to the closures yesterday when teachers turned up for work but the gates were locked. The argument was made that schools did not have enough supervisors to provide cover, but it was within the capacity of school managements to open the schools to examination students, particularly leaving certificate students. There would not have been health and safety issues in the teaching of leaving certificate students. That is an important point because today students are very pressurised.

A greater effort should have been made, in terms of contingency planning, to open the schools for examination students, in particular. Does the Taoiseach accept that there was a failure on the Government and management side in providing for adequate contingency measures to facilitate the opening of schools yesterday? I ask him to indicate when that issue will be resolved. I also ask him to indicate whether he is prepared to give a commitment on the issue of equal pay for newly qualified teachers in finding a pathway to a successor to the Lansdowne Road agreement.

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