Teachers to lobby TDs on pay cuts

GOVERNMENT backbenchers face the wrath of teachers whose four unions have asked their 65,000 members to lobby TDs this weekend against the public service pay cuts announced in Wednesday’s budget.

Along with 250,000 other public servants, teachers and college lecturers face cuts of at least 5% from January if the Government legislation to impose the cuts gets through the Dáil on Tuesday and Wednesday, with protests planned at Leinster House from Tuesday evening.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) last night called an emergency meeting of its 180-member central executive committee to discuss what its leaders described as the savage attack on pay and pensions.