The Taoiseach, the Minister for Education and Skills and the Government have broken their agreement with the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland.

They have locked out teachers and locked out 250,000 students. There is only one industrial relations agreement between the Department of Education and Skills and the ASTI and that is the Haddington Road agreement, freely entered into by the Department of Education and teachers. Except where that agreement explicitly states otherwise, the agreement expired last 30 June. Crucially, a key area where the agreement extends into the future is that of supervision and substitution and how these are to be paid for. The agreement states that:

A gross additional payment equivalent to the 2011 lower payment rate paid for supervision and substitution will be included in the common basic scale for teachers. This will be included in two moieties with half included in the school year 2016/17 and the second half included in the school year 2017/18.

Teachers turned up for work to teach but the Taoiseach and his Minister broke their agreement by refusing to pay for substitution and supervision. They closed schools, locked out teachers and locked out students rather than honouring an agreement that they freely entered into. They are prepared to pay parents, citizens and members of another union in the same school but they are not prepared to honour the agreement they freely made with the ASTI.

Clearly this is not a question of money. It is an attempt to coerce and bully a union into a new agreement and Mussolini, Franco and their Irish blueshirt ally, General O'Duffy, would be proud of the Taoiseach and his Government today. His claim that the ASTI has unilaterally withdrawn from Croke Park hours is completely false. The Haddington Road agreement makes no provision for the maintenance of these hours beyond 30 June and, as the Taoiseach well knows, the majority of teachers do additional hours far in excess of Croke Park on an ongoing basis to support and develop students in music, arts, drama, sports, transitional year projects, etc. In any event the Croke Park hours have not been worked for months and this has not necessitated the closure of schools.

The Taoiseach and his Government are breaking the Haddington Road agreement. They are locking out teachers and using students as pawns to bully the ASTI into an agreement. Will the Taoiseach stop breaking the Haddington Road agreement, pay for supervision and substitution and allow our students and children back to school? Will he and his Government stop locking out teachers and holding students as hostages to force a trade union into an agreement to which it is not party and which union members have rejected? The Taoiseach should leave William Martin Murphy, the infamous Dublin employer who locked out workers in 1913, in his grave. He can stop the lock-out today to allow teachers and students back to work and he should allow the right to free trade unions in this country.

Deputy Finian McGrath is looking uneasy.

The Deputy is going well when he can bring William Martin Murphy and General O'Duffy into the dispute. Deputy Healy is a good student of history and must have done his homework well.

Does the Taoiseach endorse what he said?

He is wrong, however, when he says the Minister and the Department have locked students and teachers out of schools. Boards of management are responsible for the opening of schools and for seeing that there is proper supervision in hallways, schoolyards and classrooms.

Pass the buck.

The Minister has not closed down schools. The issue of supervision and substitution has arisen because the ASTI unilaterally withdrew from the collective agreement to work one hour extra per week.

Wrong again.

That is not true.

That one hour was for parent-teacher meetings to be held during school hours to accommodate everybody. The pay of teachers in the INTO and the TUI includes a component of over €1,500 per year for supervision and substitution, as part of a negotiated deal through the system of collective agreements.

That amount was and is available to the ASTI and would have been paid to its members but for the fact that they withdrew from that part of the agreement. I am sure Deputy Seamus Healy will agree that students should be able to go to school in what is a very important semester and that teachers should be available to teach them. The problem is not one which has been caused by the Minister, but he will do what he can to assist in bringing about a solution because we all want to see schools open, teachers teaching their students and students having the opportunity to learn and do their work, particularly those who will be doing their junior and leaving certificate examinations in June next year. The leaving certificate examinations will not be long in coming around again and students will need all of the time they can get for projects and doing other work with their teachers during class hours. This is an element which is causing serious difficulty because people do not know when schools will be open again. The fact that principals were denied the opportunity to get involved in making arrangements in this regard has not helped. Money is on the table for substitution and supervision payments, one of four issues on which the ASTI is in dispute with the Department and which could be resolved.

What about equal pay?

I trust that the bilateral discussions that are ongoing will bring about a speedy resolution of this dispute and that we can then move on to-----

The strike is about equal pay.

It is clear to anybody with an independent view that the Taoiseach, the Government and the Department of Education and Skills have locked out teachers and students. The Taoiseach's claim that the ASTI unilaterally withdrew from the Croke Park agreement on working hours is completely false, demonstrably so. He has claimed in the past few days that there is no money available to pay teachers. That is also false. In the last two budgets the Minister for Finance gave back €172 million to the wealthiest 5% in the country, €120 million of which was provided in budget 2016 and €52 million in budget 2017. We know from the Central Bank's report that the wealthiest 10% in the country own assets worth over €100 billion, an increase of €35 billion on peak boom levels, and that they do not pay one cent in tax on that money. I am asking the Minister and the Taoiseach to ensure moneys will be made available. The super rich have oodles of money which, if there was the political will to do so, could be taxed at even a small rate. A 1% wealth tax on the super rich would help to pay for a huge amount of work to be done. Will the Taoiseach at least reverse the payment of the €172 million to the super rich in the last two budgets and make the money available for schools, pay and pensions restoration?

Returning to the question the Deputy asked originally about the industrial dispute arising from the withdrawal from supervision and substitution duties, money is on the table to deal with the issue.

Pay it.

In respect of the deal negotiated under previous pay agreements, there is a component of €1,500 per annum for teachers who involve themselves in supervision and substitution duties.

Pay it and schools could open in the morning.

The Deputy knows that.

I know that teachers have been locked out and that the Taoiseach could stop the strike this afternoon if he wished to do so.

Will the Deputy, please, let the Taoiseach respond?

If the Deputy expects a board of management-----

If the Taoiseach did not engage directly with Deputy Seamus Healy, we could get through the answer.

I will engage with you.

There is only one boss.

If Deputy Seamus Healy expects a board of management to open a school without providing for adequate supervision of students or staff, it will not do so because of health and safety regulations.

Many of them managed to do so.

This is a matter that can be resolved. As I said, money is on the table to pay teachers now.

Pay it.

The dispute resulted directly from ASTI withdrawing from working the extra hour for which supervision and substitution moneys are available now.

That is untrue, demonstrably so.

It is not about supervision or extra hours.

I trust that the bilateral discussions which are under way and about which Deputy Healy knows will bring about a speedy conclusion to this particular industrial dispute between the ASTI and the Department.

The Taoiseach should not be allowed to tell lies. The extra hours are not supervision.

Resume your seat, Deputy Coppinger.

It is correcting the record. The extra hours have nothing to do with supervision.

Please resume your seat.