Quinn won't respond to 'hypothetical' teacher's strike threats

The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, said he will not respond to threats of industrial action by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland.

The union is meeting this morning to consider its next action, following the rejection of the Haddington Road Agreement.

Members have said they will refuse to work additional hours set out under the Croke Park Agreement as part of a campaign of industrial action.

Minister Ruairi Quinn said it's up to the union to deal with the matter, and he refuses to be drawn on hypothetical situations.

"There was a proposal to improve the Croke Park agreement, which we needed to do, which has been accepted by virtually every union except the ASTI," he said.

"It was a democratic ballot, they're perfectly entitled to make the decision the way they did.

"It's really a matter for them to decided what course of action they want to take and I'm not going to pre-judge what that might be nor am I going to indicate how we might respond to something that's hypothetical."

Earlier, General Secretary of the ASTI, Pat King, accused the Government of "moving the goalposts" on the Croke Park deal and cutting teacher's pay.

"It's logical that we would withdraw from the aspects of the agreement that we've committed to," he said, "… we have to respond."