Up to 300 striking school secretaries and caretakers gathered outside Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s Turner\u2019s Cross constituency office today, demanding he intervene in their industrial dispute with the Department of Education.<\/p>\n
Some 2,600 members of the F\u00f3rsa union across the country began an indefinite strike on Thursday, calling for school staff to be included in the public service pension scheme and other entitlements.<\/p>\n
Their industrial action comes as thousands of schools return for the start of the new academic year.<\/p>\n
Last-minute talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) between F\u00f3rsa and the Department of Education broke down on Wednesday evening without resolution.<\/p>\n
The dispute hinges on the fact that school secretaries and caretakers are not entitled to public service pensions and other entitlements, but rather, when they retire, must rely on a State pension.<\/p>\n
Campaign<\/p>\n
After a union-led campaign several years ago, secretaries in most schools were put on the public payroll in 2022, meaning they no longer had to receive social welfare during the summer holidays, and became entitled to sick pay and maternity leave.<\/p>\n
Although they are now being paid directly by the department, most are still not classified as public servants.<\/p>\n
Noreen O\u2019Callaghan, who is a school secretary at Watergrasshill National School, said the picket of Mr Martin\u2019s constituency office had begun shortly before 8am today.<\/p>\n
Simultaneous rallies were held outside T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris\u2019s constituency office in Bray, and at the Department of Education, while pickets were mounted outside schools across the country.<\/p>\n
When Ms O\u2019Callaghan, who is F\u00f3rsa national branch secretary for school secretaries, spoke with The Echo, she had to raise her voice on several occasions to be heard over the beeping of passing cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support of the public has been brilliant, it\u2019s great to see such solidarity from the public,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe school we\u2019re picketing, Bunscoil Chr\u00edost R\u00ed, which is just down the road from Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s office, came out and did a little chant for us, \u2018Strike, strike, strike, now, now, now\u2019, and they were just brilliant.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThat really gave us a great lift, and we have the facilities of the school to use, what an amazing principal and staff of that school to allow us that, and there was a lovely note from the parents\u2019 association pinned to the gate, supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intervene<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Callaghan said the striking workers were calling on Mr Martin to intervene directly in the strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet the department officials back to talk to F\u00f3rsa in the WRC, and this time come back with a good offer,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re sick of hearing platitudes, we\u2019re sick of hearing that we are brilliant and all that.”<\/p>\n
![\"\u00a0](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4762136_2_articleinlinemobile_DSC00241.jpg\" "\\"\u00a0")
\u00a0 Victoria Luke, school secretary from St Mary’s School in Rochestown, and Noreen O’Callaghan, Watergrasshill NS and secretary of the school branch of F\u00f3rsa, who formed part of the protest that marched from Nano Nagle school in Turners Cross to An Taoiseach’s constituency office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to retire without an occupational pension, I feel that this is something that secretaries and caretakers should be getting and paying into for ourselves.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re employed by the boards of management, paid by the department, just like our colleagues, and we have secretaries and caretakers on ETBs [education and training boards] who have public pension status, and that\u2019s what we want \u2014 equality.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing the same job, and we\u2019re not being recognised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave O\u2019Donoghue, a school caretaker from Scoil na Croise Naofa in Mahon, said he has been in the job for the past 17 years.<\/p>\n
Support<\/p>\n
He said the support from passing motorists meant a lot to those on the picket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting this, we\u2019re getting support from all walks of life, and people are being so decent and kind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re outside An Taoiseach\u2019s office and we\u2019ve been walking up and down, and the kids inside in the school came out into the yard and they were even getting involved in our chants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping Mr Martin will intervene, because our demands are not hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want public service pay for what we believe we do, which is public service work.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4762139_2_articleinlinemobile_DSC00267.jpg\" "\\"Protesters")
Protesters hold up signs outside An Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin’s constituency office in Turners Cross. Picture: Noel Sweeney.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon, around 2,500 F\u00f3rsa members picketed the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on Dublin\u2019s Merrion St, with many carrying placards saying: \u201cI\u2019m worth more than a box of chocolates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donoghue said the slogan summed up the situation in a nutshell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have secretaries and caretakers who have given up their whole working lives, 30, 40 years, and they might get a box of chocolates at the end, and they might get a round of applause, and that\u2019s it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we work closely with colleagues every day \u2014 principals, teachers, SNAs [special needs assistants] \u2014 who have their pensions, who have their bereavement leave, who have their critical illness leave, and they\u2019re perfectly entitled to it, but we\u2019re surely entitled to the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unbelievable\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tim Mangan, a school caretaker from Moyderwell Mercy Primary School in Tralee, described as \u201cunbelievable\u201d the turnout at the picket in Turner\u2019s Cross.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool secretaries and caretakers haven\u2019t been looked after for the last number of years, and we feel that it\u2019s time for us to get parity with our colleagues, to get sick leave and bereavement leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to go on strike, but we are prepared to stay out until we get what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Cork South Central, Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire, said that without school secretaries and caretakers, schools would grind to a halt.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cTo be honest, they\u2019ve been shown serious disrespect down through the years, that seems to be continuing,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI fully support their campaign in taking this strike action, and in seeking decent pensions so that they can stay in their jobs and have decent pensions for the rest of their lives.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Taoiseach does need to get directly involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s far too hands-off by the Government, putting everything into the WRC; clearly there\u2019s a need for the Taoiseach to get directly involved.”<\/p>\n
Sympathetic<\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Laoghaire said that he had spoken privately with Government TDs and that they were \u201cvery sympathetic\u201d to the demands of the school secretaries and caretakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s because their claim is so reasonable, and because Government TDs understand the importance of their role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what we need now is the Government to recognise publicly with their demands and give them a decent pension, because it\u2019s the very least that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Martin was asked for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to 300 striking school secretaries and caretakers gathered outside Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s Turner\u2019s Cross constituency office today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[781,9,10,24920,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-31720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-cork-schools","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}