More than 300,000 workers in the Republic of Ireland have begun a 24-hour strike, with teachers, nurses, doctors and civil servants among those taking part. The action forms part of an ongoing pay dispute between public sector employees and the Irish government.
A further walkout is scheduled for 21 October. Schools are expected to close, hospital appointments are set to be cancelled, and picket lines are expected to form across the country during the 24-hour strike.
Escalating industrial action since late September
Industrial action has been building for weeks. At the end of September, more than 100,000 staff, including nurses, school workers and civil servants, moved to work-to-rule measures. Primary and secondary teachers in the Republic joined work-to-rule at the start of October.
Almost 97% of Fórsa members who voted in an industrial ballot backed action. The union is the Republic’s biggest public service union.
Government and unions trade blame over talks
Brendan O’Brien, divisional organiser of SIPTU, which represents public sector health and administration workers, said earlier that the goodwill of staff had been a major reason public services kept running. He said the government’s failure to set up a basis for formal talks “left our members with no alternative but to act collectively”.
On Tuesday, Jack Chambers, the Republic’s minister for expenditure, called the strike “deeply disappointing”. He warned it would significantly disrupt the economy, with thousands of hospital appointments set to be cancelled and schools closed.
Teachers describe pay pressures and saving for homes
Dawn Hutchings-Walsh, a teacher at Hartstown Community School in Dublin who commutes from County Wicklow each day, told an Irish broadcaster that pay “just isn’t stretching the way that it used to”. Her colleague Sinéad McCarthy said she had taken a career break and moved to Dubai for a couple of years to save for a deposit.
McCarthy said saving for a house in Ireland was “just not feasible” given what teachers earn there.
Linda Kelly, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said teachers are “really struggling in terms of their pay”. She told the broadcaster that the government did not appear to be taking them seriously, and that it had had ample time to resolve the issue.
