'All bets off' in event of any changes on pay or packages

CROKE PARK AGREEMENT:ANY MOVE by the Government to withdraw from commitments on pay and redundancies in the Croke Park agreement will see the Teachers Union of Ireland walk away from the deal, its general secretary Peter MacMenamin said yesterday.

Mr MacMenamin told more than 400 delegates at the TUI annual conference in Tralee that while the union had opposed the Croke Park deal it was effectively forced into accepting it when other unions opted to sign up and it was left “virtually the last union standing”.

However, Mr MacMenamin warned that in the event of there being any departure from the terms of the agreement, particularly in relation to pay and redundancies, then the union would consider “all bets are off”.

“If these conditions are breached, then we as a union absolutely reserve the right to withdraw from all commitments given. We also reserve the right to consider and ballot for a resumption of industrial action up to and including strike action,” he said.

Mr MacMenamin said the jury was still out on the new Government but one cause for optimism was the fact that the new Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn – who is due to address the conference today – at least recognised that the Irish education system is not a world-class system for all.

“It is an education system that is allowing too many people slip through the cracks, too many people leave with significant literacy and numeracy problems – it is an education system that is suffering from the neglect of decades and that neglect is in the main, a financial neglect,” he said.

Mr MacMenamin said the TUI had met all the political parties before the general election and had been encouraged by Labour’s plan to set a target for investment in education similar to that for overseas aid but the proposal was noticeably absent from the party’s election manifesto.

Investment was essential to have a well-educated workforce to help stimulate economic development and even Ibec recognised this, said Mr MacMenamin.

He took issue with comments made by the Minister for Public Service Brendan Howlin in which he said that the public service was “not fit for purpose” and pointed out that last year the Institute of Technology sector took in excess of an extra 5,500 students with diminishing resources.