In his annual address to the Congress of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) today, General Secretary Peter MacMenamin outlined the fury of members at a Government that picks up the debts of banking executives while withdrawing books for schoolchildren and cutting the pay of teachers and lecturers “to the bone and beyond.”

 Mr MacMenamin also reiterated that only TUI will make a decision on the conditions of service of members.

TUI’s annual conference is taking place at the West County Hotel, Ennis.

“Right now we seem to be in a new form of redistributive politics.  Instead of redistributing wealth, noticeably not done in the good times, the Government has allowed wealth to be concentrated among a few; developers, bankers and others in an inner circle. When they blew all they had and much more through personal greed the Government squandered the nation's resources for generations into the future by distributing the personal debts of those few resulting in a liability equivalent to €12,000 for each individual, man woman and child in this country.”

“Why is it that this Government will allow the three or four senior executives of one bank to escape their responsibilities leaving behind their personal debts running to over €100m to be picked up be the taxpayer while the books for schoolchildren are withdrawn and the pay of TUI members is cut to the bone and beyond.”

Mr MacMenamin also reiterated that the only acceptable transformation agenda for members of the TUI will be a transformation of the level of funding allocated to the sector.

“The only transformation TUI wants to see is a transformation in the resources being allocated to education.  Teachers and lecturers as educators are engaged in continuing and ongoing change in terms of teaching methods, assessment modes, course development and changing social patterns.  Change of this form is nothing new for teachers.”

Only TUI members will make a decision on their pay and conditions, the TUI general secretary emphasised.

“TUI’s decision on the proposed public service pay deal will be just that; a TUI decision.  Nobody else will overturn it:  not an aggregation of teachers votes; not an aggregation of public service workers votes, not the Public Services Committee of ICTU; not ICTU itself.  The sovereign decision of TUI will be just that.  Nobody but TUI has the right to negotiate on and to decide on the conditions of service of TUI members.  There may well be a decision taken by the PSC in which we may find ourselves in a minority.  So be it.  We have the right to take our own decision.  We will exercise that right. “