Industrial action closes schools: Let’s stick to the Lansdowne deal

NEARLY two-out-of-three secondary schools were closed yesterday. 

ASTI members refused to supervise students during breaks. As it stands, this unacceptable situation will continue indefinitely. Schoolchildren — more than 200,000 — and their parents will have to cope, and the situation impinges heavily on students facing state exams in the summer.

The ASTI rejected the terms of the Lansdowne Road Agreement and sought immediate change to the conditions offered to their members. They, and the garda representative bodies, were the only public-service groups to seek this special treatment, though concessions granted to the gardaí have toppled the dominoes, and union after union is demanding, unsurprisingly, similar treatment.