Come on ASTI — who do you think you are?

At the early stages of the so-called Celtic Tiger, a preposterous claim was made by the then president of the ASTI to the effect that the wonderful “economic boom” being experienced in the country was directly as a result of the teaching given by her members to the new young entrepreneurs, and as a consequence she felt her members should be entitled to a 30% pay increase, on top of benchmarking.

When economic failure hit the country, no corollary claim was offered.

When the Haddington Rd agreement was accepted by all other unions, however reluctantly, but at least acknowledging the economic reality of the public pay bill, ASTI demurred, arguing that they are a special case.

Well I would like to ask ASTI, who do they think they are, and what makes them so important and different from the rest of the Public Service. Entry points to an Arts degree are not particularly onerous.

Salary scales compare very favourably to other EU countries, as indeed does annual leave entitlements, and behaving like yobs at their conference does not give very good example to the pupils whose interest they claim to prioritise, nor does it endear them to the general public who frankly find their behaviour and antics disgusting.

Joe Kennelly

Inniscarra

Co Cork