MORE than 300,000 public sector workers across Ireland struck yesterday in a one-day stoppage over pay, shutting most schools, colleges and universities.
Nurses, teachers, laboratory scientists, porters and council staff mounted picket lines from University Hospital Galway to Dublin Castle. Siptu said more than 60,000 of its members staffed up to 2,000 pickets, its largest mobilisation in a generation.
The Irish Dental Association struck for the first time since its founding in 1922. At the Mater, crowds chanted: ‘What do we want? Fair pay. When do we want it? Now.’
The last public service agreement expired in June, and unions are demanding that pay be settled first. Siptu deputy general secretary Adrian Kane said the 1.2bn Euros set aside in the budget amounts to a rise of about 2.5 per cent for 2027.
‘With annual inflation currently running at 4.1 per cent this provides no credible starting point for talks aimed at protecting living standards,’ he said.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said public sector pay had risen just under 16 per cent since 2021, against inflation of about 22 per cent.
Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan pointed to a ‘breakdown in trust’ over problems with paying local bargaining awards and the unmet promise to repeal the Fempi laws.
‘Nobody wants to be on strike, there is a way that we can resolve this but we need a shift in the government position,’ he said.
Workers on the pickets described wages that no longer stretch.
‘I’m earning the most money I’ve ever earned in my career, and I’m still struggling,’ said Dublin primary teacher Stephanie Goggins.
Audrey Lambert, of Fórsa’s Dublin City branch, said: ‘We have young people that come in and join us and they cannot stay because the pay is not enough.’
National Museum officer Lisa Walsh McAuley said: ‘Some of us are double jobbing, and that’s taking a toll.’
Martina Burke, a healthcare assistant in Galway’s emergency department, said: ‘If they don’t sit down with us, we will 100 per cent be back here again next week.’ A second stoppage is set for 21 October.
