More than 300,000 public sector workers have taken to the streets across the country this morning as part of strike action over a delay in agreement over a new public sector pay deal.
Teachers, healthcare professionals, firefighters, prison officers and civil administrative staff are among those taking part in the 24-hour work stoppage today, affecting services nationwide, in what is the largest public sector strike in 17 years.
A second strike day is planned for Wednesday, October 21 if the issue remains unresolved.
The dispute is centred on the failure to agree a new pay deal after the 2024-2026 Public Service Agreement expired in June.
The Government allocated €1.2 billion in funding for a new agreement as part of Budget 2027, but unions and public sector voices contend that it is not enough, adding that the Government has failed to make any substantive commitments since the June expiry.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers clarified that pay could be the starting point in negotiations between Government and trade unions.
His comments came after the minister wrote to unions on Monday suggesting that pay could be discussed during negotiations, alongside other considerations like reforms and productivity.
Meanwhile, on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland today, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said that while pay could be discussed up front, he added that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed is a simple principle of negotiation”.
“It’s not realistic to say let’s have a side deal on pay at the start and then move into a completely separate set of discussions on everything else,” Lawless said.
The minister also criticised the strike action, saying that whereas it is normally the “last resort” after negotiations have failed, “it appears to be the first resort in this instance”.
“So when those [union] members ballotted a number of months ago for strike action, you might have anticipated there would be a round of engagement, there would be an offer made, perhaps refused, if they [unions] want to go again that’s fine that’s their prerogative, and they’d be in and out of talks.
“In actual fact they haven’t even come into talks and they haven’t even got the first offer yet,” the minister said, adding that “we’re having the strike before the talks, we don’t even have an offer yet”.
General Secretary of Fórsa Kevin Callinan said this morning that if the Minister Chambers had met with unions over the past four months, today’s strike action could have been avoided.
Callinan told Morning Ireland that there had been “a fundamental breach of trust, a loss of confidence in the industrial relations system”.
Union members have been out this morning carrying placards bearing the words “Official Dispute”, and slogans like “Fair Pay” and “We all deserve a better deal”.
The strike has resulted in widespread disruption, with schools across the country closed and many hospitals accepting only urgent cases. Driving tests scheduled for today have been cancelled as staff from the Road Safety Authority take part in the strike, alongside almost all court sittings.
Union leaders out demonstrating today have expressed cautious optimism at the recent statements from ministers suggesting that pay could headline talks with the Government, but calls for Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s intervention have nevertheless grown.
Many of those out picketing today have cited inflation and the cost of living as the driving force behind the strike, with Fórsa’s Callinan saying this morning that a gap “has arisen between wages and inflation”, that “has been accelerated by the most recent bout of inflation (and) has to form part of a new public service deal”.