Picket lines formed outside hospitals, school gates and even Garda headquarters on Wednesday as more than 300,000 Irish public servants stopped work for 24 hours. It is the largest industrial action the Republic has seen in almost 20 years, and it brought large parts of the state to a halt.
Classrooms, colleges and universities were mostly empty, with the INTO, ASTI, TUI and IFUT teaching unions all out alongside special needs assistants. Health managers cancelled thousands of routine appointments and procedures, keeping only A&E, urgent cancer care, dialysis and a reduced ambulance service running. Nearly every court sitting was called off, both houses of parliament stayed dark, driving tests were scrapped and public libraries and heritage sites shut their doors. Uniformed police and soldiers, barred by law from striking, stayed at work, and buses and trains kept moving.
What lies behind it is a pay agreement that expired in June without a replacement. Unions led by Fórsa and Siptu say ministers dragged their feet for months and refuse to put wages first on the agenda. The cabinet points to €1.2bn set aside in the 2027 budget. On the picket line, that sum drew scorn: one Dublin groundsman reckoned it worked out at a few euros a day. Others described rents swallowing half their wages and friends emigrating to Australia or Dubai.
By midday, however, both sides were sounding less entrenched. Fórsa’s general secretary Kevin Callinan urged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to appoint “an honest broker”, yet said a “pathway to a resolution” could be built after expenditure minister Jack Chambers indicated talks could start with pay. Martin welcomed the unions’ “tone and disposition”.
If no deal emerges, another nationwide stoppage is already marked for 21 October. Opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald said ministers were playing a “disrespectful game of chicken” with staff who keep the state running.
