{"id":651651,"date":"2026-10-11T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/651651\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T17:00:09","slug":"public-sector-strike-may-be-difficult-to-avert-at-this-stage-minister-admits-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/651651\/","title":{"rendered":"Public sector strike may be difficult to avert at this stage, Minister admits \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The one-day national strike by 400,000 public sector employees planned for Wednesday will \u201cprobably go ahead at this stage\u201d, a Government Minister has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Minister for Further and Higher Education <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/james-lawless\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/james-lawless\/\">James Lawless<\/a> said \u20ac1.2 billion has been set aside by Minister for Public Expenditure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jack-chambers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jack-chambers\/\">Jack Chambers<\/a> for the pay demands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He also argued the average rate for a public sector worker was \u201cfar higher\u201d than that for a private sector worker. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Lawless indicated it might be difficult to avert the action. \u201cI think the strike will probably go ahead at this stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added he had spoken to public service employees, and believed they did not want to picket on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhat I\u2019d say to the union leadership is, come in and talk. Come to the table,\u201d he said on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rte\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rte\/\"> RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s The Week in Politics. \u201cIt can still be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/sinn-fein\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/sinn-fein\/\">Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD Rose Conway Walsh told the same programme the Government could sort it out by Wednesday but that a resolution would only be reached if focused firstly on the question of pay increases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere is no point in the Minister standing back arrogantly and saying, \u2018Well, you know the table is open,\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Labour\u2019s finance spokesman Ged Nash said it was no surprise trade union groups would want to prioritise pay in pay talks when there was a cost-of-living crisis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/your-money\/2026\/10\/07\/budget-2027-falls-short-of-preventing-public-sector-industrial-action-say-unions\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Budget 2027 falls short of preventing public sector industrial action, say unionsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt is not only about pay but is about respect as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Lawless said he respected the rights of unions to take industrial action. But he said talks needed to take place. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cCome in with a blank sheet of paper and let\u2019s engage. And of course it\u2019s going to involve pay. How could it not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Preparations are under way for the strike, which will see more than 300,000 public sector workers undertake a 24-hour work stoppage in pursuit of a new public sector pay deal, though essential services will be maintained. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Another strike is scheduled for the following Wednesday, while senior union figures are privately warning of escalation of their action in November if negotiations do not get under way in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The one-day national strike by 400,000 public sector employees planned for Wednesday will \u201cprobably go ahead at this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44788,61,60,13808,17162,43,6085,3415],"class_list":["post-651651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ged-nash","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-chambers","tag-james-lawless","tag-news","tag-rte","tag-sinn-fein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}