IPPN

Published: 05 February 2009

Source: Irish Times

By: SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor

TEACHER UNIONS: OPPOSITION AMONG the teacher unions to the new pensions levy intensified yesterday with the Teacher's Union of Ireland (TUI) threatening to take strike action.

The INTO also said all options, including industrial action, were on the table after a meeting of its executive yesterday. General secretary John Carr welcomed the Taoiseach's readiness to engage in dialogue with the public service unions and said the INTO would engage fully in the process.

"But," Mr Carr said, "these talks are a final opportunity to achieve a fair society." He condemned the Government's economic measures as totally unacceptable.

The TUI said it had been inundated with calls and e-mails from members furious at the new levy. It said it is "ruling nothing out" in terms of its response to the pension levy.

The union's executive committee meets tomorrow and union president Don Ryan said it will be taking members' views on board in formulating a response.

The TUI is seeking an early meeting of the Public Services Committee of Ictu with a view to considering an extensive programme of action in opposition to what it calls "the continued scapegoating of the public service and of the continuing cushioning of wealthy private sector employers, bankers and developers".

Mr Ryan said: "We are particularly appalled by the campaign of misinformation by Government. A myth has been spread that teachers, as public service workers, make no contribution to their pension entitlement. This assumption is completely false."

He said capital taxation, taxation of property other than primary residences, wealth tax, and targeting of tax evaders and tax exiles are some of the means that must be used by the Government to resolve the financial crisis that is of their own making.

INTO president Declan Kelleher said: "This is not social solidarity and neither is it a proportionate and fair response to our economic difficulties."