School leaders plead for solution as row threatens school closures

School leaders have urged a resolution of the dispute that threatens to close schools within weeks as Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) industrial action looms. The union’s standing committee will decide today what to do with the mandate received from 75% of members who voted four-to-one in favour of action on two issues.

As well as the threat of school closures if ASTI’s 18,000 members stop doing supervision and substitution before plans to hire replacement staff are finalised, which could take seven weeks, strike days are also likely in an effort to get all teachers hired after 2011 on equal pay with longer- serving colleagues.

Clive Byrne, president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, said a positive atmosphere must be maintained in staff rooms and schools at all times.