Schools reopen as teachers agree to enter talks but hospitals face chaos as nurses union threatens to strike

More than 400 second-level schools are re-opening to students for the first time in nearly a fortnight as the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and the Department of Education enter conciliation talks.

Industrial action that has seen nearly 200,000 students receive no classes since before the mid-term break was the subject of an invitation yesterday to talks. It was issued by Teachers Conciliation Council chair Anna Perry, and accepted last night by the ASTI and by Education Minister Richard Bruton’s officials.

While the move by no means guarantees a resolution to their complicated disputes on a number of fronts, the union’s 23-member standing committee agreed to suspend their one-day strikes and withdrawal of their 17,500 members from supervision and substitution duties. That will remain the case as long as the talks with Ms Perry continue, a process that could go on until the end of this month.