Plan for parents to run schools ‘ludicrous’, says Colm O’Rourke

Plans to use parents to supervise in schools on days when the ASTI are on strike are “implausible, ludicrous and unworkable” according to GAA commentator and school principal Colm O’Rourke.

He said that the civil servants who had come up with the idea should spend more time trying to come up with a solution to the dispute with the ASTI.

The principal of St Patrick’s Classical School in Navan which has 900 students, predicts that schools will not be able to function once the ASTI withdraws its services.

"The idea that they could bring in parents, vet them, train them in a short time is absolutely unworkable," he told RTÉ's Today with Seán O'Rourke show.

He said there had been “absolute chaos” in 2002 during the last teachers’ dispute with students walking out and disruption in general.

“School management will just not take a chance,” he said.

“They (the ASTI) will contend that they are not closing schools, but their action will close schools.”

Mr O’Rourke said the Department of Education should “just pay them to do their duties. Why not just pay them as a gesture outside the Lansdowne Road agreement?”

He said he is a long time critic of the ASTI and that he is not a member of either of the trade unions for second level teachers.

“I agree that newly qualified teachers should be paid equally, but there are a whole load of education reforms needed and the ASTI needs to lead.”

Technical difficulties

On the same programme, the general secretary of the TUI John MacGabhann says there are technical difficulties of advertising, selection, training and vetting parents to supervise in schools on the days of the ASTI industrial action.

“There’s the obvious technical difficulty of an advertising process, a selection process because very clearly you cannot take all comers,” he said.

“There is the vetting issue which is not, by any means, a simple one, because we’ve had recent experience of it where teachers who had taken up new appointments experience delay in having their vetting come through.”

He said there are roughly 200 schools where teachers are members of both the ASTI and the TUI.

The board of management would have to make a decision on whether those schools can open, but Mr MacGabhann said that no member of the TUI will engage in any of the work normally undertaken by an ASTI colleague and they will not be providing substitution.

He said: “We cannot instruct our members not to pass the picket because we wouldn’t be compliant with legislation.

“What we can say is that, in order to secure a day’s pay, you have to be available for work. If you chose not to be, you do run the risk of a day’s pay.”

Mr MacGabhann said that the TUI would “absolutely protect” from disciplinary action any member who chose not to pass the picket.

Open minds

Meanwhile, the vice president of the ASTI, Ger Curtin, said he hopes the department comes to talks on Wednesday with open minds, but he is “not 100 per cent hopeful” about the outcome.

He said the dispute was ongoing because of the “stubbornness” of the Government.

He said on the six previous occasions that the sides have met for talks, the Government has “talked around talks” so he does not anticipate the dispute will be resolved today.

“I hope they are coming with a willingness to get this sorted. The closures about to happen are completely unnecessary re supervision and substitution,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“For the last three years our members have done 43 hours per year unpaid supervision and substitution in schools and they were told when they signed up for (the) Haddington Road (agreement) they would be paid €796 gross from the 1st September this year,” he said.

“What has happened is the two unions - the INTO and TUI have gotten this money, ASTI has not.”

He said: “Now we are seeing advertisements in the papers today for €38 per day and €19 per hour after that. That’s more than what they were prepared to offer our members and more than what our members were prepared to accept.

“Yes there are issues with (the) Lansdowne Road (agreement), there’s no doubt whatsoever, and perhaps the biggest issue I have with it is the lesser paid colleagues entering the profession.”

He said he would admit that some progress has been made “but we still do not have equal pay for equal work”.

He described an editorial in today’s Irish Times as a very emotive article.

“Don’t forget that the vast majority of teachers are not looking for a single cent here, the money promised for supervision is there already, who are we looking for money for? We’re looking for money for lesser paid teachers - in our own organisation that’s something like 2,000 members,” he said.

He said he did not know where Minister for Education Richard Bruton got the figure €2.3million "to sort out" the pay, "but what he was actually talking about was full pay restoration across the entire public sector. That is not even on the agenda".

Mr Curtin said: “I hope it is sorted. It’s going to be a tight call for Thursday week.”

When asked about TUI instruction to cross the picket he replied “if they decide to do that fair enough, if they don’t sin scéal eile”.