Teachers are to hold a picket outside the Dublin office of Anglo Irish Bank this afternoon to highlight underfunding in the education sector.
The protest will be held outside the Stephen’s Green office at 4.30pm by a group called Teachers United, which includes members from the three main teaching unions the ASTI, INTO and the TUI.
A statement by the group said the picket was “to highlight the fact that the education system is grossly underfunded while the banks that were making €1 million a day in profit during the Celtic Tiger are being bailed out.”
Deirdre Cronin, a primary school teacher in an inner city DEIS school said: “Why is it that when bankers, who caused the economic crisis by speculating, get into trouble, the Government writes them a blank check?
“But yet the government will not bail out schools. They penalise them by cutting teachers, increasing class sizes and cutting the pensions of teachers. We always have to pay for their mistakes – its time to turn the tide”.
Bernard Lynch, a secondary school teacher, said: “By cutting pay and conditions of teachers and slashing the infrastructure of our schools, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
The group has urged teachers and pupils to join today’s picket.