Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when he will meet the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland regarding various matters of concern and if he has set preconditions for such a meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12392/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of the wider framework of public service agreements is to balance the rightful ambition of public servants to see improvements in their pay and conditions with the needs of the public to see improvements in the services they use after a lost decade of investment.

These agreements, and in particular the most recent Lansdowne Road Agreement, bring important benefits for public servants generally and teachers in particular, including increments, Supervision and Substitution Payment, protection again compulsory redundancy, and alleviation of the FEMPI pay cut for higher earners.

They also bring significant benefits for users of public services, which in the education sector include the so-called 'Croke Park hours', which help ensure that parent-teacher meetings, staff meetings and other activities can proceed without schools being closed during the school day.

Just as being inside these agreements bring benefits, it is also important to point out that being outside these agreements bring risks for both public servants and for the wider public who use the services they provide.

ASTI members voted at ballot last Autumn not to accept the Lansdowne Road Agreement. However, they have continued to abide by the Haddington Road Agreement, which has an original expiry date of 30 June 2016.

Following a recent ballot, ASTI members have now voted to withdraw from the Croke Park hours upon completion of the Haddington Road Agreement.

The Croke Park hours are a valuable resource within the school system which allow certain essential activities involving the entire teaching staff or groups of teachers to take place. These include staff meetings, parent-teacher meetings, school planning, subject planning and mandated Continuous Professional Development.

Except for an element of parent-teacher and staff meetings, prior to the Croke Park Agreement these essential activities took place within tuition time, meaning that schools closed for full or half days in order to carry them out. Pupils did not attend the school during these closures, resulting in interruption to tuition and additional childcare costs and significant inconvenience for parents, particularly the parents of primary school children.

Under the Croke Park Agreement, teachers agreed to provide 1 hour of additional time per week so that these essential activities could be carried out without school closure and the consequent interruption to tuition for pupils and inconvenience for parents. This time commitment continues under the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road Agreements. It is important to note that many public servants committed significantly more hours than this under the public service agreements.

In withdrawing from these hours, ASTI are thereby repudiating the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

In opting to withdraw from the Lansdowne Road Agreement ASTI members are also opting to forego a series of benefits and protections, as communicated by my Department previously.

These include avoiding an increment freeze, continuation of the alleviation of the FEMPI Act 2013 pay cut for higher earners, the Supervision and Substitution payment of €796 due to be paid on 1 September and protection against compulsory redundancy.

A further significant consequence will be the withdrawal of the benefits introduced for new teachers under the Ward Report, which enable them to gain permanent employment and full hours more quickly than before.

ASTI were invited to discussions with my Department on the same basis as INTO and TUI. Regrettably, ASTI declined to take part in such discussions and instead decided to ballot on a withdrawal from the Croke Park hours. My Department's invitation to ASTI to discuss issues of mutual concern remains open.