Speech by John Boyle
President
Irish National Teachers Organisation
on taking office as president at Congress 2017
Waterfront Hall Belfast
19 April 2017
A chomhleachthaithe agus a chairde Gaeil uilig go leir,
Tá an athas orm an slabhra seo a chaitheamh ar son Dhún na nGall! Bhí Conallach eile
Liam Mac Closcaigh, ina Uachtarán an uair dheireannach a bhí muid anseo i mBéal
Feirste i 1996. Cé go bhfuil dul chun cinn iontach déanta ag Cumann Múinteoirí
Eireann idir an da linn, tá sé rí-shoiléir go bhfuil roinnt de na fadbhanna céanna sa
chóras oideachais go foill. Labhair Liam faoi scoileanna beaga, scoileanna míbhuntaiste, múinteoirí feabhais, scoileanna Gaeltachta, paineal fachoinne ionadaithe,
priomh-oidi a bhí ag teagaisc agus ar ndoigh maoiniú don oideachas. Ar an drochuair
bhí muid ag díospoireacht faoi na rudaí seo arís i rith na seachtaine seo. Ní bheidh mise
sásta an Chaisc seo chugainn muna mbíonn feabhas ar gach ceann de na cuspóiri seo. Tá
muinín agam as an lar-Choiste Feidhmiúchain agus as sibhse ar mbaill go mbeidh
toradh fiúntach ar ár saothar ag obair le cheile sa bhliain atá romhainn.
Before I set out our stall for the next year, I wish to thank everyone who assisted me
during the last year- a year during which INTO has made significant progress for all our
members and a year that was really enjoyable for me as vice-president but also very
challenging on a personal level. I never mind a challenge, I’ve always seen them as
opportunities. The opportunity to be vice-president was a special one. The opportunity
to contest a presidential election was a very exciting and exhilarating one - a once in a
lifetime opportunity. And the opportunity to engage with Gregor, his team, my own
team and thousands of our members was extraordinary- a magnificent period of
engagement for our members and as you can see this week INTO has moved forward
united behind the key issues.
I wish to dedicate my successful election to this prestigious position to everyone who
has helped me over the last 52 years and in particular to absent friends – my late father
in law Lauri Hume who went to his eternal reward 6 months ago, to my dear friend
recently deceased Francie Connolly, Deputy Principal of St. Colmcille’s Senior School
and to my mother in law Angela and my mother Brid who are not well enough to be
with us today.
On a happier note it’s wonderful that my inspirational father Owenie Boyle 83 years
young and some of my siblings Joseph, Anne and Ita are here to celebrate with me. I am
really looking forward to representing every one of our members during the next 50
weeks and to delivering improvements for them and for the pupils we teach. The most
daunting aspect will undoubtedly be chairing the CEC meetings, particularly trying to
keep tabs on my wife Carmel, who begins her tenure on the executive today. If she does
half as good a job supporting the members in District 9 as she did supporting me
throughout the last 13 years they will be truly blessed.
I also wish to thank my teaching colleagues at St. Colmcille’s Junior School, Knocklyon,
our Deputy Principal Ita Corduff, our Board of Management and my former colleagues at
Scoil Mhuire Ballyboden. Thank you to the INTO family who have assisted me since I
became a District Representative in 2004. I know that this is a very proud day for
District 8. There has only been one President from our District during my teaching
career – our esteemed General Secretary Sheila and of course Noel our outstanding
General Treasurer, was my CEC Rep. District 8 will hold three of the four positions on
the INTOs Senior Leadership team, as we celebrate our 150th anniversary so there’s
obviously a lot of pedigree in South Dublin & Wicklow.
I am delighted that Joe Killeen, the champion of the small school, will be the fourth
member of that team. And I wish to acknowledge Rosena Jordan’s magnificent year.
Since last Easter she and I worked very closely as a team. I am truly grateful to everyone
in District 8 and in South County Dublin Branch for their support over the last 30 years.
I am sure they will understand me singling out one honorary branch member, my
former principal teacher - the legendary Tadgh Mac Phaidin- the man who inspired me
to dedicate so much of my life to helping fellow teachers. He was exemplary and still is
to this day. Go raibh céad maith agaibh uilig as an tacaíocht agus as an chairdeas thios
trid na blianta.
A chairde, Sue Carney Director of the American Postal Workers Union stated recently
that: “ At the core of unions we are working men and women, unified as one force.
Despite personal differences that may exist between us, we have banded together to
protect and improve the lives of workers. We rise together for the greater good. We
defend one another like family.”
In the next year colleagues, it is my ardent wish that every INTO activist will unite in our
ambition to defend each other like family. United we stand, divided we fall.
We have set out a wide-ranging agenda for the next twelve months. These agenda items
are not laudable aspirations like Minister Bruton’s 10 year plan, they are practical
realities that I believe are very achievable goals that we can deliver by working together
cohesively. But we are well aware that Minister Bruton and his government colleagues
and hopefully the new administration in Northern Ireland will hold the keys to the
safes. I know that there’s money in those safes and I am determined that money will be
spent on education.
As I see it we have a stark choice colleagues- either we look backwards at the last
turbulent decade when Irish workers bore the brunt of massive and unfair austerity
policies, severely testing the strength and resilience of the trade union movement or we
can propel ourselves forward into the next decade. As your President, a president for
all of our members North, South, East and West, your new representative, I intend to
ensure that each and every one of you gains the level of respect, recognition and
recompence that befits the incredible contribution you make to moulding the lives of
future citizens on the island of Ireland. Those of you who know me well, know that I’ve
always been a realist, but a very positive optimistic realist. I’m sure that all of you have
noticed the cyclical nature of the world’s economy – i rith mo thríocha bliain ag
múineadh bhi muid thíos ar feadh an chéad deich mbliana, thuas idir 1997 agus 2007
agus thíos arís o shoin.
A century ago colleagues after the First World War came the Jazz Age- I intend as INTO
President to play my part in ensuring that the next year is equally upbeat for you as the
Jazz Age was in the roaring 20s. As a starting point I will be determined to tell your
story in every medium that I possibly can. I am confident that through that storytelling
each one of you in your schools will follow my example. In my view we have let
politicians off the hook in relation to investing properly in education on this island. As a
workforce we need to do more to articulate loudly, clearly, consistently and
passionately on behalf of our system. We cannot leave this responsibility to our INTO
Representatives, we are the INTO and we must enlist the support of our school
communities in raising awareness of the many challenges teachers face in the 21st
century.
Everyone of you who attended this Congress has shown leadership. Many of you spoke
eloquently and with fervor. Together we must now ensure that our collective voice is
heard every day for the next 12 months. That’s what trade unions do. Forget about the
school down the road, we are all in the same lifeboat, trying to survive. Despite the
challenges posed by under-funding we are surviving and often thriving because we are
committed to saving and improving the education system. But we must not accept the
impoverished mindset of policy makers and legislators to the education system. There’s
no point in INTO using the slogan of our First President Vere Foster “A nation’s
greatness depends on the education of its people” if we accept the lip-service being
paid to education by those who have cut our budgets, shrunk public funding of
education, sent our funding back to Westminster and who have introduced gross
inequities to our classrooms and even to our staffrooms.
I promise you colleagues that I will lead INTO in discussions with our paymasters North
and South in the coming months with a very straight forward approach.
Every INTO member North, South, East and West must receive a fair day’s pay at a rate
befitting the 21st century- a rate that is calculated from the same salary scale as the
teacher next door, a rate for school leaders that makes no distinction between the ages
of the pupils in the schools we lead, and a rate that recognizes the supreme sacrifices we
the teachers of Ireland have made during the last decade. The teachers of Ireland are
owed a great debt for the dedication we have shown our pupils during the recessionschool leaders have an outstanding equality claim owed for 9 years, every teacher North
and South endured raids on their salaries throughout that period and new entrant
teachers have been treated shamefully for six years. All of these injustices must end this
year. Let there be no doubt 2017 is the year for Fair Pay for teachers on this island.
I believe that it will be possible to negotiate significant progress on all of these issues
within the next few months. I’ve often quoted President John F Kennedy who said ‘
Never Fear to Negotiate but never negotiate out of fear”. This afternoon I wish to
highlight another one of his quotes: He warned: “Those who make peaceful resolution
impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable”
I repeat that warning to our paymasters. No INTO member wishes to return to Roisin
Carabine’s time of 1985, when a million public and private sector working days were
lost to strike action in the Republic of Ireland but our patience is running out. We
demand fair multi-annual pay deals North and South. We will negotiate hard but we will
not be afraid to use our industrial muscle if necessary. We have waited long enough for
justice, fairness and equality.
I now turn to teacher workload. First and foremost I have never had any difficulty
embracing change provided that change would bring improvement to the teaching and
learning experiences of my pupils. INTO members have transformed the education
system with little or no support from policy makers. However it has been patently
obvious to me that global neo-liberal agendas, free market capitalism and its push
towards profit making schools in systems that are deregulated, but experience tighter
centralized control, which can result in the domination and control of teachers’ work by
politicians, corporate funded think-tanks, entrepreneurs and business managers have
the potential to wreck the education systems on this island. The INTO has kept this
wrecking ball from our school doors.
We must continue to insist that teachers need time to teach and time to think. The
children deserve the wonder and awe induced by energetic enthusiastic teachers who
are masters of their craft. Irish teachers are world renowned because they are fully
committed to their pupils and to their profession. The time for paper pushing is over.
The time for trusting teachers to deliver the curriculum and for supporting them in
their role is now. If we could afford to do this fifteen years ago, when Irish education
truly transformed, surely it makes sense to do it now again as our economy rises. The
art of teaching must take priority over the craft of paperwork. If not Minister Bruton’s
dream will become a real nightmare.
Finally ladies and gentlemen you may not be aware that as we enter our 150th year, only
three Irish trade unionists have statues erected in their memory. Unsurprisingly after
all we have done for the people of Ireland, two of the three were INTO stalwarts.
Our first President Vere Foster’s statue is in Tallanstown, our founding member
Michael Doyle’s monument stands in Ballymote and of course Jim Larkin’s statue stands
on O Connell Street in Dublin.
Every day I walk past Jim Larkin’s statue on the way to INTO Head Office, I intend to
repeat his statement: “I have a burning desire to close the gap between what ought to be
and what is”. By working together colleagues we can make progress on your pay, on the
substitution crisis, on school funding, on pensions, school leadership and middlemanagement, special education, small schools – I went to a two teacher school myself,
teacher contracts and mobility, teacher safety, pregnancy related sick leave,
bereavement leave, educational disadvantage, school staffing, teacher workload, teacher
induction, the visiting teacher service. By working with other unions we can help end
the heartaching homelessness crisis. I cannot promise that we will stop Brexit, but I will
do everything in my power to support teachers who live or work in Northern Ireland or
close to Northern Ireland so that the effects of Brexit are minimal on their professional
and family lives.
I am really looking forward to the year ahead. I intend to celebrate the work of our
41,000 members and expect that this time next year when we reach our 150th birthday
that even more members will be proud of the achievements of INTO during its 149th
year.
Go raibh céad maith agaibh as an deis a thug sibh dom feidhmiú ar bhur son go lanaimseartha ar feadh bliana. Is pribhléid iontach é. Tá bród an domhain orm agus ta mé
ag tnuth go mór leis an bhliain ata romhainn. Duirt Uachtaran na h-Eireann Mícheal D O
h-Uiginn agus é ag tracht ar an gaol úr idir Eire agus Sasainn I gCaislean Windsor
anuraidh
“Tá féidireachtaí gan terorainn eadrainn anois”.
Mar Uachtaran nua-thofa Chumainn Múinteoirí Eireann a chairde tá mise lan-chinnte
go bhfuil na féidireachtaí céanna gan teorainn ag múinteoirí na h-Eireann anois.
Tá me iontach buioch daoibh uilig as an obair a rinne sibh i rith na seachtaine ar son an
cheardchumainn agus guim gach rath oraibh sna laethannta atá romhainn.
Nár laga Dia bhur lámha.
Míle buiochas.