{"id":655903,"date":"2026-10-15T21:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655903\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T21:56:10","slug":"jack-chambers-hopeful-of-way-forward-to-prevent-further-public-sector-strike-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655903\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Chambers \u2018hopeful\u2019 of \u2018way forward\u2019 to prevent further public sector strike \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> has said he is \u201chopeful\u201d it may be possible to \u201cfind a way forward shortly in the national interest\u201d to prevent further strike action by public sector workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a Labour Party<\/a> D\u00e1il private member\u2019s debate, he said it was \u201ca sensitive matter and work is ongoing\u201d. He was \u201cnot in a position to provide specific or further detail at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Union leaders attending a meeting of the Irish Congress of Unions\u2019 public services committee also declined to comment on the scale of progress being made behind the scenes with one expressing the same concern that things be derailed.<\/p>\n

Kevin Callinan, who chairs the committee, said there had been \u201cpositives over the past 24 to 36 hours,\u201d but added that next week\u2019s strike is \u201cabsolutely\u201d still on as things stand.<\/p>\n

Other union officials observed the D\u00e1il debate from the visitors\u2019 gallery, as Chambers said: \u201cI hope to be able to provide further detail shortly and as part of an agreed way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the confirmation from the unions that the established principle of collective bargaining will apply. In other words, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.\u201d <\/p>\n

He pointed out that in the last agreement from 2024 to 2026, pay rose by 9.6 per cent compared with cumulative inflation of 6.6 per cent, \u201cachieved through the collective bargaining process\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cthat can provide a basis for constructive engagement while ensuring all parties at the opportunity to address the issues that are important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the row over union demands to deal with pay first in negotiations, the Minister said \u201cI\u2019ve confirmed Government\u2019s willingness to prioritise pay\u201d in the talks.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Union leader warns of \u2018long and difficult dispute\u2019 if breakthrough on pay not madeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> told the D\u00e1il<\/a> the Government<\/a> wants to increase public sector wages but it can only happen if people get into talks.<\/p>\n

She was responding to Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash<\/a>, who warned her the Government had \u201ca maximum of 24 hours to avert next Wednesday\u2019s planned action and the ball is firmly in your court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raising the issue following the 24-hour strike on Wednesday<\/a> by 300,000 public sector workers, Nash called on the Taoiseach to \u201cmake a substantive and substantial proposal to unions to allow the beginning and the end of this dispute to come into view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you formally drop your arbitrary preconditions on how and when the question of pay is settled?\u201d he asked. \u201cAnd will you commit to the principle of keeping public sector incomes ahead of inflation in any putative new agreement?\u201d<\/p>\n

As unions warned of a further 24-hour strike on Wednesday, October 21st, the Minister insisted there were no preconditions to further talks, \u201cin the same way that any previous pay discussion or engagement had no preconditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Could the public sector strike be a one-off?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Government seeks \u2018negotiation process\u2019 to avoid second round of public sector strikesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Striking workers on the picket lines \u201care hurting because of a pattern of gaslighting and disrespect expressed time and again since this Government took office\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re hurting because PAYE workers were thrown under the bus in Budget 2026 in favour of chicken chains,\u201d he said of the VAT cut to 9 per cent for the hospitality sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re hurting because they saw you write a cheque for those who brought the country to a standstill<\/a> last April, while they and their unions, people who play by the rules, were told that when their pay deal expired in June, that their lives and their work just didn\u2019t matter as much,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The Minister said she acknowledged and recognised \u201cthe invaluable and the significant contribution that our public sector paid workers make to this country, and indeed the impact that they have on all of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEntee said she had spoken to workers on the picket lines on Wednesday. \u201cAnd the very clear message that I got is that people want to be around the table. They want Government and the unions to be talking\u201d about pay, conditions and the increased demands on services with a growing population.<\/p>\n

She said \u20ac1.2 billion had been set aside \u201cspecifically for us to be able to start these talks. That\u2019s not the complete picture\u201d, given \u201cwhat we know from our previous public sector pay agreements\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said he is \u201chopeful\u201d it may be possible to \u201cfind a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[943,15049,44788,1556,61,60,4106,6189,1843,43],"class_list":["post-655903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cost-of-living","tag-dail-eireann","tag-ged-nash","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-congress-of-trade-unions-ictu","tag-labour-party","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655903","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=655903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}