Junior cycle teachers’ strike
Diarmuid Wilson says the impending teachers’ strike will affect hundreds of thousands of students and argues that the Government has not gone far enough to resolve the Junior Cycle dispute.
As Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has pointed out, tomorrow, 27,000 teachers in 730 schools will go out on strike for the second time in as many months. This will affect more than 340,000 students as well as many working families who will be forced to take the day off to look after the young people who are not at school. This is a serious situation which involves proposed changes to the junior cycle. While I credit the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, in going some way towards resolving the impasse, I do not believe she has gone far enough. I completely disagree with Senator Fidelma Healy Eames when she blames the unions. In my view the unions are right on this occasion. This is a serious situation that will cause chaos in the education system if it goes ahead in its present proposed form. Will the Leader, please, use his good offices to try to engage with the Minister and ask her to come to the House to outline how she and her Department have tried to resolve this situation?
I refer to the matter raised by Senator James Heffernan regarding fuel laundering along the Border. With Senator Terry Brennan and others, I raised this issue yesterday. The situation is very serious, not only from a revenue point of view but from a health point of view and a law and order point of view. I wish to clarify what may be some misunderstanding on the part of Senator James Heffernan. There is no suggestion whatsoever that An Garda Síochána or the Customs service on this side of the Border have turned a blind eye. They have invested a huge effort in combating this fuel laundering and the havoc it creates. It is costing Louth County Council, Monaghan County Council, in particular, and my own county of Cavan hundreds of thousands of euro to clean up the sludge left behind by these gangsters. I want to clarify the point. There is no suggestion a blind eye is being turned by the Garda or the Customs service.
However, there is a very serious suggestion a blind eye is being turned by the Northern authorities - by the PSNI and the customs service. Will the Leader ensure the Government acts on this as a matter of urgency?