O'Keeffe says education job losses to be less than 400 [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 24 February 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
By Niall Murray
THE number of teaching jobs which will be lost because of budget cuts will be less than the 400 originally expected, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe predicted yesterday.
He made the claim as he urged 60,000 teachers not to vote for industrial action as their unions begin a national ballet over the coming days.
The decision in last October's budget to change staffing levels in primary and second-level schools has led to an unresolved dispute between the minister and the unions over the number of teaching posts which will be cut as a result.
They claim it will be close to 2,000 while Mr O'Keeffe has insisted it would be around 200 at primary level and 200 at second level but that he could not say definitively until enrolment numbers from all schools, known as October returns, have been analysed.
But yesterday, he told the Irish Examiner it would actually be fewer than those 400 originally estimated.
"The indications to date suggest that it might even be less than that. That's based on some of the returns and some of the indications we have that it's actually going to be less," he said.
He made the comments as three teacher unions begin balloting this week on industrial action up to strike action, in opposition to the public service pension levy and education cutbacks.
The outcomes are expected to be announced by the end of next week by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, which has 18,000 members, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (30,000 members) and the Teachers' Union of Ireland (14,500 members).
The Irish Federation of University Teachers will decide on March 7 whether to ballot its 2,000 members on industrial action. General secretary Mike Jennings said it will await the Government response to the attendance of around 100,000 workers in Saturday's Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) demonstration in Dublin against Government economic policies, including the public service pension levy. Save
Asked what his message was to teachers who will vote over the next week on industrial action, Mr O'Keeffe urged them to consider their own job security.
"We're saying to teachers that your positions within the school is that your jobs are safe, but they're certainly not safe in the private sector. An extraordinary number of people are losing their jobs, day in, day out," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe said members of the three unions are teaching children on the basis of their students having a future in Ireland but that this future will not be guaranteed if Government spending is not curtailed.
"Unfortunately everybody in this country is going to have to take pain in order to get this economy back thriving again," he said.
TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin last night urged all members to give the union executive a clear mandate to engage in whatever action it deems appropriate to oppose the latest cutbacks.
