The Teachers Union of Ireland AGM 2024
Placards in support of Palestine were held aloft by a majority of some 500 teachers when a government minister took to the stage at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland’s (TUI) annual congress last month.
Standing up in silence, hundreds of teachers held signs saying ‘Sanction Israel now’; ‘Government action not words’; and ‘351 schools bombed by Israel’.
Minister of State for Skills and Further Education Niall Collins later said that he shared the protesters' sentiment about the “truly distressing” situation in Gaza.
He said the Government has been calling for a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid and it would be articulating the concerns expressed at the TUI congress today on Gaza at EU level.
TUI President David Waters, responding to Mr Collins, said that Youthreach “has for too long been consigned to the margins”.
Aligning Youthreach centres with the second-level calendar, which TUI has worked with government on through the Workplace Relations Commission, “would help prevent burnout, increase morale, and ultimately offer a much better educational experience to students,” Mr Waters said.
Mr Waters received a standing ovation from delegates when he called on the minister to condemn the “scandalous violence” in Gaza and the “savagery” of the Israeli Defence Forces.
“On behalf of Congress, I urge you, your government colleagues, and Minister Harris in particular, to be the moral compass that the world currently needs, and, by all means necessary, to redouble your efforts to get a complete cessation to the grotesque violence we are witnessing on a daily basis and help create a lasting peace for the region.”
Research from the TUI shows that just 35% of survey respondents who entered the profession in recent years received full-time contracts when first employed.
Mr Gillespie described this as a "scandalous statistic in the teeth of a recruitment crisis".
The lack of substitute teachers in schools is also “a chronic problem,” he said.
Mr Gillespie told the conference that the amalgamation of the TUI and the Association of Secondary Teachers’ of Ireland (ASTI) unions has been a longstanding TUI policy.
Discussions about an amalgamation have been taking place since May 2022 when TUI offered ASTI some of its sectoral funding to restore some money lost by that union due to industrial action in 2016, Mr Gillespie said.