{"id":656846,"date":"2026-10-16T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656846\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T19:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:32:10","slug":"public-sector-strikes-called-off-after-late-intervention-by-taoiseach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656846\/","title":{"rendered":"Public sector strikes called off after late intervention by Taoiseach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Wednesday’s public service strike<\/a> has been called off after a late intervention by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> broke a months-long deadlock between the Government and unions and opened a pathway towards formal pay talks.<\/p>\n

However, negotiations have yet to begin, with efforts starting on Saturday morning to establish the basis for entering talks.<\/p>\n

F\u00f3rsa general secretary Kevin Callinan acknowledged on Friday night that the deadlock would not have been broken without Mr Martin’s intervention, but insisted a pay deal must be reached within “days, not weeks”.<\/p>\n

Unions have warned that while the strike action has been suspended, their work-to-rule will remain in place until an agreement is reached.<\/p>\n

Kevin Foley, a chairperson of the Workplace Relations Commission and former chair of the Labour Court, has been appointed to act as mediator.<\/p>\n

The current public sector pay agreement expired in June. The Government and unions have been at loggerheads in recent months about how to convene talks, and how they should be organised.<\/p>\n

The unions had called for pay and the cost of living to be discussed in any pay talks, while the Government said there could be no preconditions on the talks. <\/p>\n

This language has softened in recent days, with public expenditure minister Jack Chambers saying that pay could \u201cabsolutely\u201d be a starting point for talks.<\/p>\n

Mr Callinan said on Friday that the strike action has been avoided following the intervention of the Taoiseach, who left a meeting in Brussels to speak to the union boss about the stalemate.<\/p>\n

He is said to have \u201cindicated his commitment to the process that had been developed following engagement between the union and employer sides\u201d, according to a statement from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).<\/p>\n

Mr Callinan said that following his conversation with the Taoiseach, he believed there was a \u201cdesire on the part of the Government to reach a public service agreement quickly and an end to the current dispute\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Drivetime, Mr Callinan said discussions had been taking place “behind the scenes” with Mr Chambers and his officials in the last 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritically, this afternoon the Taoiseach emerged from the European Council meeting in Brussels to phone me, and we had a good long conversation where I relayed to him just how important it was that he understood the cost-of-living pressures that people in the public service, and indeed other workers, are under,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Callinan said this is a \u201cwhole-of-Government initiative\u201d, which the unions are prepared to \u201ctest\u201d, but they \u201cmust be backed up in practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis needs to all be attempted to be brought to a conclusion in days, not weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Foley, Department of the Environment secretary general Oonagh Buckley, and ICTU general secretary Owen Reidy have been appointed to undertake a \u201cfocused and intensive exercise with the parties aimed at constructing a basis for formal negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said he hopes this initiative will \u201callow for all sides to move forward together into meaningful negotiation and ultimately to a successful conclusion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now a real opportunity to make progress where both parties are prepared to come together and explore the various issues, with a genuine commitment to dialogue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Chambers said he was confident there is a \u201cgenuine commitment to dialogue\u201d and that he hoped both sides could move forward into negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next Wednesday’s public service strike has been called off after a late intervention by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,60460],"class_list":["post-656846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-public-sector"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656846","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=656846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}