Hundreds of thousands of workers on strike across Republic of Ireland

Key points

• More than 300,000 public sector workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, are on strike across the Republic of Ireland.
• The 24-hour strike is part of an ongoing pay dispute with the Irish government, with another strike planned for 21 October.
• Schools are expected to close, hospital appointments to be cancelled and picket lines to form across the country.

More than 300,000 workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, are on strike across the Republic of Ireland. The 24-hour action is part of an ongoing pay dispute between public sector workers and the Irish government, and a further strike is planned for 21 October.

Schools are expected to be closed, hospital appointments cancelled and picket lines formed across the country during the strike.

Earlier industrial action

At the end of September, more than 100,000 workers, including nurses, school staff and civil servants, moved to work-to-rule measures. At the start of October, primary and secondary school teachers in the Republic began work-to-rule action.

Previously almost 97% of Fórsa members who voted in an industrial ballot did so in favour of action. Fórsa is the Republic's biggest public service union.

There's been ample time to solve this issue and the government has sat on its hands and this is the result now

— Linda Kelly

What officials said

Brendan O'Brien, divisional organiser of SIPTU, which represents public sector health and administration workers, previously said the "goodwill" of workers was a large part of what kept public services going. He said the Irish government's failure to establish a basis for formal talks left members with no alternative but to act collectively.

On Tuesday Jack Chambers, the Republic's minister for expenditure, described the strike action as "deeply disappointing" and said it would cause significant disruption to the economy, with thousands of hospital appointments set to be cancelled and schools closed.

Teachers on pay pressures

Dawn Hutchings-Walsh, a teacher at Hartstown Community School in Dublin who commutes from County Wicklow every day, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that pay was not stretching as it used to. Her colleague Sinéad McCarthy said she had to take a career break and move to Dubai for a couple of years to save money for a deposit.

Linda Kelly, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), said teachers are "really struggling in terms of their pay". She said teachers do not feel the government is taking them seriously and that there has been ample time to solve the issue.