Public sector strike: Taoiseach hopes second day of industrial action can be avoided

The Taoiseach said ministers and officials were working to establish a process for a new national pay agreement amid widespread disruption

(Left to right) Niamh Smyth, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin speak to the media during the Government's International Artificial Intelligence Summit at the RDS in Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he “would like to think” relations between the Government and public sector unions are in “a better space” on Wednesday than they were a day earlier, as a nationwide strike got under way.

As the first full-scale public sector strike in nearly two decades began, Mr Martin said the “Government is open for negotiations, we want negotiations, we want dialogue”.

He said public expenditure minister Jack Chambers “is working hard on this” and that officials in the department were “well practiced” in bringing industrial relations disputes to a successful conclusion.

Responding to a call from Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan for an independent “honest broker” to help resolve the dispute, Mr Martin welcomed “the tone and disposition of Kevin and other trade union leaders towards being open to an engagement and being open to a process that could lead to a resolution of this”.

“Our focus on trying to get a process going that can lead to a satisfactory outcome in terms of a new national pay agreement, which is what we want to put in place,” the Taoiseach said.

Asked whether next week’s second planned strike might be called off, Mr Martin replied: “I would hope so, yes.” 

“That’s a matter in first instance (for) the trade union movement. But I would hope we will spare no effort to get talks going, and we will continue to try and open up a process of dialogue,” he said.

Taoiseach responds to strike at AI summit

Mr Martin was speaking at the Government’s International AI Summit in Ballsbridge, Dublin, where striking workers carrying placards calling for a new pay deal were joined by protesters opposing the summit itself, in a demonstration organised by People Before Profit.

(Left to right) Adrian Kane, SIPTU deputy general secretary; Kevin Callinan, Fórsa general secretary; Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary; and John Boyle, Irish National Teachers' Organisation general secretary, speak to the media during a 24-hour public sector strike over delays in agreeing a new pay deal outside the Mater Hospital in Dublin. . Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Asked whether a nationwide strike on the same day as a summit that had been 18 months in the planning was a bad look for Ireland, Mr Martin replied: “No, that’s life, you know.” 

“I think most people who come to this summit have a lot of experience of life, so it's not a bad look in that sense,” he said.

“We have a democracy. We have very fundamental freedoms. The right to one strike is one of those, and in many ways that can be a reflection that here is a society that stakeholders have an input (into).”

Taoiseach condemns Waterford arson attack

Firefighters depart the scene of the overnight fire in the Birchwood estate in Waterford City, Waterford, which claimed the lives of two adults and two children. Picture: Micheal O Scannail/PA Wire

Separately, Mr Martin condemned those responsible for an arson attack on a house in Waterford on Tuesday morning that left four people dead, saying they had acted “with absolutely no consideration for human life and for the impact of such actions”.

“The situation is extremely shocking in terms of the level of violence and consequences (for) an entire family to be impacted in this manner,” he said, while wishing the two surviving children of the English family “a full recovery”.

“I know the minister of justice and others will be working extremely hard to stamp this out and to deal very resolutely and robustly with this,” he said.

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