Teachers will have their pay docked if they take time off to march in support of Irish Ferries staff who are fighting plans to outsource hundreds of jobs at the company, the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin warned this evening.
The Department of Education said all schools should remain open during Friday's national day of protest, despite calls by teaching unions for significant numbers to turn out in solidarity with the workers.
The dispute involves 543 Irish Ferries workers who are fighting the company's plan to replace them with cheaper foreign staff from eastern Europe. Ms Hanafin said that while she accepted there would be teachers who protested, it was not in anyone's interest if schools had to close.
"I can understand people are upset at what is happening at Irish Ferries, and there is certainly a right to protest, but children are very vulnerable and need to be protected and need to be supervised and, in the context of schools, need to be taught and that's what parents are expecting," she said.
While she accepted there would be teachers who joined the protest, Ms Hanafin said it was crucial they informed managing authorities at their schools.
"I don't see any situation where a school should have to close, and we have said that - in line with all the arrangements normally for public service - if there is unauthorised absence from work, which is where a teacher would decide to protest on Friday, there would be a deduction from their pay," she told RTÉ.
John Carr, general secretary of the country's largest teaching union, INTO, earlier said he hoped as many as 2,000 teachers would turn up to the march in Dublin.
He said steps were being taken to ensure staff were available in schools to look after youngsters. John White, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, said talks with management were ongoing to decide what would happen in senior schools on Friday.
He warned that a significant number of people were expected to join the march and secondary schools could close for a half-day. "What we're saying is that as many as possible, within the constraints, should be attending," Mr White said.
"We don't want a situation where this march is not supported in a very significant way by second level teachers." All 57 unions affiliated to Congress support the day of action, while civil and public servants, transport workers and the Dublin Congress have also given their backing.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to join the demonstration through Dublin, with speculation mounting that between 30,000 and 50,000 protesters may take part. A SIPTU union spokesman said: "There has been a groundswell of support for the march."
Congress officials have been liaising with officers from the Garda Traffic Division and have been asked to end the demonstration outside Government Buildings on Merrion Street, rather than the narrower Kildare Street.
Marches will also take place in Rosslare, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Athlone and Tralee. SIPTU negotiators and management have started intensive talks at Ireland's Labour Relations Commission following intervention by the country's top industrial relations trouble-shooter, the National Implementation Body.