FUNDING for second-level schools in Northern Ireland is more than twice that for similar schools in the Republic, according to Mr John Mulcahy, president of the secondary teachers' union, ASTI.
Addressing the ICTU's biennial conference at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast yesterday Mr Mulcahy said he was "amazed" to discover from recent figures that funding per student stood at Pounds 308 for a typical second- level student in the Republic while for a student in Northern Ireland the figure was Pounds 713.
He urged the Government to end a situation where funding levels at second level were "practically at the bottom of the EU league table".
Mr Jack McGinley of SIPTU, an ICTU representative on the board of TCD, was critical of the policy instituted by the college which involved quotas of jobs that are only filled on a single contract of varying length. The purpose of these quotas, he said, was to save money but also to undermine the safeguards provided by the Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act, 1993.
He also called for the broadening of the ownership of TCD to include the staff and the public. In the autumn of this year a private Bill to extend the provisions of the Universities Bill/Act will be moved by TCD, he said, and it was vital that democracy, partnership and the extension of third- level participation happened in a real and concrete fashion.
An ICTU report on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace and trade unions has found that while some unions have been successful in negotiating positive action programmes with employers, the number of such agreements which have included disability as an issue are relatively few.
The report, Towards Integration and Equality, was unanimously endorsed at the ICTU biennial conference in Belfast yesterday. It found that among the estimated 150,000 people in Ireland with disabilities, the unemployment rate stood at 80 per cent.
Ms Paula Carey of ICTU said that many people with disabilities were not accessing work and many others were required to leave their jobs on acquiring a disability in employment.