Public Service Union Leaders have Agreed to Outsourcing with scant protection for Public Service Employees

OUTSOURCING

Claims by SIPTU and others to have made Progress on Outsourcing are False.

Public Service Union Leaders have Agreed to Outsourcing with scant protection for Public Service Employees.
Work can be outsourced to any company paying legally enforceable pay rates. Except in a minority of employments where special pay rates apply (eg Joint Labour Committee-JLC Rates), this means that the private sector employer is only required to pay the minimum wage

SIPTU and some other unions are claiming that the phrase “unit hourly pay rates of pay” will not determine the issue, protects public servants.

This is nonsense—READ ON!!!

Extract from “Delivery Service Options” Document

1. Work that may reasonably be considered as small in scale will be dealt with in accordance with normal procedures referred to above.
In the first instance, in respect of an existing service, both sides give a commitment to consult on the development of a service plan. This plan will evaluate the existing in-house service, the outsourcing option, and compare both. As part of the evaluation both parties will consult with a view to agreeing a plan to address the service changes necessary to retain the service in house. In evaluating any proposal to proceed with outsourcing, a number of factors will be taken into account, including overall cost, quality of service, effectiveness, and the public interest. All relevant costs will be included in the evaluation but it will not be determined by unit hourly rates of pay.
Where management decide to proceed with outsourcing, there will be regular consultation with the trade unions throughout the commissioning and procurement process.
Procurement will not result in a worsening of the pay rates, pension and employment conditions of employees remaining in the public service.

In line with the commitments in the public service agreement, there will be no compulsory redundancies in any outsourcing. Both sides will maximise redeployment opportunities.

Next Page—-

“All relevant costs will be included in the evaluation but it will

not be determined by unit hourly rates of pay”. Is this good news?

Apparently much play is being made by SIPTU of this sentence as “proof” that employees are protected against the worst effects of outsourcing by this clause.

This is a total misrepresentation

Let us examine what this sentence actually means.

Since all relevant costs will be included in the evaluation for outsourcing, “unit hourly rates of pay” will be a factor, but not the sole determining factor.

No public service employer could operate on the basis that unit hourly rates of pay would be the only determining factor. As point 2 above states “overall cost, quality of service, effectiveness” will also be factors.

If a private sector employer was giving “poor quality of service”, lower hourly pay rates in private sector would be of little value to the public service employer.

On the other hand, the sentence also means that outsourcing can be justified even when unit pay rates in the private sector are higher than in the public sector

In its rejection statement TEEU have strongly made this point.

“Overall cost” includes the cost of continuing to employ permanent public servants though the task is “once off”. The employer would claim that such employees would be “underutilised” on a continuing basis.

Binding Arbitration The document provides for “consultation” but not for negotiation.

Any disagreement between unions and management will be resolved by binding arbitration at the Labour Court. The criteria for the adjudication will be the terms of the Croke Park Deal.

Redundancy “In line with the commitments in the public service agreement, there will be no compulsory redundancies in any outsourcing. Both sides will maximise redeployment opportunities.”

This clause is effectively the same as the “commitment” given in the General Agreement.

Outsourcing will not in itself cause “compulsory redundancy”. But an employee can be made compulsorily redundant if s/he does not agree to be redeployed as a result of outsourcing. In this agreement, Public Service unions have agreed for the first time that permanent public servants can be made compulsorily redundant in certain circumstances.

EARNINGS The commitment that “pay rates” will not be reduced by outsourcing does not protect against reduction of “incomes” or “earnings”. The take home pay of many public servants can be, and has been, drastically reduced while maintaining basic “Pay Rates”

Unions must consult with management with “a view to agreeing a plan to address the service changes necessary to retain the service in house. In the context of the recruitment ban, this can only result in a major increase in workload during the ordinary working day.

Outsourcing applies to all grades including professional grades

In the “clarification” issued by Mulvey/Foley it is stated that outsourcing applies to all parts of the public service– not just to manual and clerical services

Joe O’Toole Supports Croke Park Deal – My reply

Public sector reform deal is the best we can hope for says NUI Senator

Joe does not mention the requirement to negotiate changed teaching contracts for teachers and lecturers or the agreement to the continued elimination of posts of responsibility in schools and large numbers of lecturing posts at third level or the damage to collegiality–

Senator Joe O’Toole represents NUI graduates in Seanad. Eireann. He is a former primary school principal, former general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, and a former President of ICTU. In the most recent election to Seanad Eireann he was nominated by David Begg, General Secretary of ICTU.
Joe is recommending a “yes” vote to the Croke Park Deal

Members of TUI, ASTI and Irish Federation of University Teachers have voted strongly against the Deal. UNITE which represents lecturers in University of Limerick has voted against the DEAL. The Dublin based Education Branch of SIPTU has recommended a” no” vote as has the Academic Section of SIPTU at NUIG

INTO executive recommended acceptance and the members voted in favour though 35% voted “no”.
The only arguments made by Joe (Irish Times, 7 May) in support of the deal is that there is “hope” that pay losses may be restored and union leaders will be able to “influence” changes in the public service.
He makes no mention of the requirement to negotiate changed teaching contracts under pain of continued pay reduction. The failure of the DEAL to halt the wholesale elimination of posts of responsibility in primary and secondary education and the provision in the agreement to make all teachers carry out the duties as additional unpaid work. The huge ongoing reduction in numbers of lecturers at third level and the provision in the agreement to force remaining lecturers to carry out the duties of the unreplaced go unmentioned. The threat to tenure and academic freedom from the redeployment provisions of the agreement goes unrecorded. In a word the Croke Park deal is to be used together with the moratorium on recruitment to devastate the education system, seriously worsen conditions of service and to replace collegiality with managerialism. It would be too much to expect Joe to mention a 4year pay and pension freeze no matter how steep the increase in consumer price index!!
As this is the effect of the deal negotiated by ICTU Public Service leaders, it is clear that public servants would be far better served by depending on their own unions and foregoing the “influence” of ICTU in discussing changes in the public service.

But Joe is well aware of the huge increase in the workload of teachers and the large cuts in education provision inherent in the DEAL. He has state on record:“I met Batt O’Keeffe (Minister for Education) and Mary Harney(Minister for Health) during the talks(Nov/Dec 2009) and they were both salivating at the prospect of getting at the things in the union documents on offer—We are very near an agreement (in current talks) because  the deal was virtually done last December.” Senator Joe O’Toole, Former President ICTU on RTE, Marion Finucane, Sunday March 22 urging Government to accept the ICTU offer to Government in December 2009 which became the Croke Park Deal.

But the approach of Joe is not surprising. Teachers will remember his infamous statement in the context of the ASTI dispute. “Benchmarking is just an ATM machine” Senator Joe O’Toole rubbishing the attempt of ASTI to achieve a catch up pay rise outside of Benchmarking which incorporated industrial style productivity dealing in the public service. IBEC have not ceased to quote the statement of Joe since then as part of a campaign for pay reductions in public service. The effect of the statement was to give comfort and ammunition to the enemies of the public service.

Irish Times Fri, May 07, 2010
OPINION: The Croke Park deal on pay and reform is grim but a yes vote will keep the unions in an influential position, writes JOE O’TOOLE 
PUBLIC SECTOR workers deciding how to respond to the Croke Park deal find themselves in a conundrum. Inherently they want to do the right thing but they feel it is unfair that they, and private sector colleagues, should have to shoulder the financial consequences of the greedy and reckless policies of our former icons.
It is impossible to contradict those who maintain that it’s the worst deal ever they saw. I’m with them in that assessment. As agreements go this one has to be at the bottom of the pile.
Add to that the fact that there is a complete breakdown of trust and confidence in the Government and, above all, there is a ferocious anger towards it and a firm desire to give the Government a bloody nose and it becomes apparent why it has so few champions.
It was a young teacher who put it at its simplest to me. “I just don’t trust this Government. I don’t believe them and I’m going to vote against the deal. I distrust anything proposed by this Government. Why should we do anything to accommodate them?”
And she had a solid point, reflective of thousands of public servants who find themselves in exactly the same space.
Intuitively I want to lash out against this deal too but strategically I come to a different conclusion. . Some union members are of the belief that they can vote “no”, keep the head down and there will be no change. Unfortunately, not so. The only certainty in all of this is that, whether the vote be won or lost, the Government will have to continue to make savings in public service costs at the next budget. Another certainty is that only after those savings are made can there be any chance of regaining some of the lost pay.
Union members are faced with choices which, though unattractive, are very clear. They can be represented around the table, influencing and informing crucial decisions regarding the timing and implementation of public service reform and fighting for pay restoration. On the other hand they can be involved in a less-than-attractive long-term campaign of action against the Government, seeking the reversal of cuts.
Which is best then? The certain pain and possible gain of such a campaign or the certain advantages from a negotiated set of outcomes as posited in the agreement.
The agreement, bad as it is, does offer hope, opportunity and influence. Hope that we have hit the bottom of pay cuts; an opportunity to begin the reclamation of what we have lost; a chance to have an influence in shaping the direction of public service reorganisation.
As regards paying back the Government, voting against the agreement is not the way. There will be other opportunities to do that. The general election is around the corner.
Public servants with more secure employment and good pensions are easy targets. They rarely see their contribution publicly acknowledged. As with many in the private sector, their pay cuts have been savage and devastating and, like most of the population, every euro of monthly income is spoken for by way of direct debits, standing orders or ordinary living expenses.
Unlike our bankers, these were undertakings honestly entered into on the basis of certainty of income and security of employment. Now, with net pay cut, those public servants, like their private sector colleagues, are struggling to cope and worrying about more cuts and rising interest rates.
The uncertainty is terrorising. If they could truly believe that the deal would end pay cuts and begin a process of reclaiming lost income then they would flock to it.
In that regard, the immediate challenge to the Government is to authenticate its bona fides. To bolster up the deal, politicians must win the trust and confidence of the voting trade union members and convince us of their commitment to both the spirit and letter of the Croke Park document.
If public servants could truly bank the pay assurances in the agreement then there would be a solid level of support.
We’re not being served up a great-looking dish from Croke Park. Hard to find much meat in it and there’s little enthusiasm for the veggies, only the hope that the pudding will be better when it arrives.
It is a big ask but, unappetising as it is, these proposals are the best we can expect just now. And, if we can make them work, not only will we be the winners but also the country and the economy. Voting “no” offers no protection whatever. Voting “yes” at worst offers a sporting chance of beginning the reclamation of lost ground. Let’s go for it..

Letter to Irish Times
Public sector pay and conditions
Sat, May 08, 2010
Madam, – I’m incensed by Joe O’Toole’s assessment of the Croke Park deal (Opinion, May 7th). He quotes a young teacher, whose objections to the deal are based purely on mistrust of the Government – and by extension, not logic, and he goes on to imply that opposition to the deal is a lash-out, knee-jerk reaction.
He also implies that public service interests will not be represented when reform happens, if the agreement is not ratified – the alternative being prolonged industrial action. This is just scaremongering nonsense, based on the false premise that this agreement is the only option open to the public service. This is not only spurious, it is dishonest and wrong. Why was this deal brokered in the first place? It was certainly not negotiated in the interests of the rank and file union membership. The connivance of the ICTU leadership with this Government has manufactured a situation where workers are forced to vote on an agreement that should not exist.
This deal offers workers nothing. This is a Government- sponsored document which bestows draconian powers on employers and Dickensian conditions of employment on employees. If passed, this deal will have dire consequences for all workers in this country, and not just those of us in the public service. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD HOLLINSHEAD,
Hazelhatch Park,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.
© 2010 The Irish Times

‘The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Corporatization, the Assault on Academic Freedom and the End of the American University’, (via 9th level Ireland)

“Ellen Schrecker, a history professor at New York City’s Yeshiva University, starts The Lost Soul of Higher Education with a blunt assessment: ‘In reacting to the economic insecurities of the past forty years, the nation’s colleges and universities have adopted corporate practices that degrade undergraduate instruction, marginalize faculty members, and threaten the very mission of the academy as an institution devoted to the common good’ …” (via 9th level Ireland (excerpt) and full article)

Three out of Four Teacher Unions Vote no. Second and Third level Education Unions Stand Together

IFUT votes 68% no—three of four teacher unions have now voted no—IFUT has today reiterated that it will not be bound by majority decision of Public Service unions

Recent ballot outcomes are as follows:

TUI No 75%, Yes 25%

ASTI No 62%, Yes 38%

IFUT No 68% Yes 32%

INTO No 35%, Yes 65%

CPSU has already had a 67% NO Vote

Croke Park Agreement would hasten the Demise of Academic Freedom

If we allowed Croke Park Deal to be imposed on us, managerialist developments, undermining of university autonomy, weakening of tenure and academic freedom and destruction of scholarship would be immeasurably accelerated. The processes described by Tom Garvin and Jim McKernan would become rampant.
For more by respected University Academics and the challenges to academic freedom

Jim Mc Kernan,”The Idea of a University: an Essay in Support of Professor Tom Garvin’s Thesis of Grey Philistines Taking Over Our Universities”

Garrett Fitzgerald “Independence would enhance role of universities in society”

Tom Garvin, “Grey philistines taking over our universities”

IMPACT MEMBERS CALL FOR “NO” VOTE

Staff in Health Services

THE LABOUR COURT CONFIRMED THAT THE HSE FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT STILL EXISTS NOW BUT “YES” TO THE DEAL Will REMOVE MOST KEY PROTECTIONS IN THE AGREEMENT UNDER WHICH HSE STAFF WERE TRANSFERRED FROM THE OLD REGIONAL HEALTH BOARDS.

IMPACT leadership has accepted the Labour Court Recommendation which confirms this. Any suggestion that because the FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT is “timeless” ,it will not be changed by the Croke Park Deal, is entirely false.

Ten clauses which the Labour Court ordered to be changed to come into line with Croke Park Deal include

• location(redeployment)
  
• Appointment and Promotion
  
• Common Recruitment Pool
  
• Reporting Relations
  
• Outsourcing
  

The national executive had changed its recommendation to “yes” even before talks had started and began the ballot before talks had ended!
All IMPACT members are being asked to vote yes to changes that will only become fully clear afterwards. Members in HSE are being asked to vote yes before the elimination of key protections in the Framework Agreement and in their employment contracts is finalised. Acceptance of the Croke Park Deal would give the green light to government to eliminate the protections for staff contained in the legislation setting up the HSE(Section 60,Health Act, 2004).
Disagreement in the talks will be resolved by a final or binding adjudication by the Labour Court without a further hearing. The criteria for the adjudication are whether the changes bring the Framework into line with the Croke Park Deal.

WORSENING OF CONDITIONS:

Following a “yes” vote, further talks would take place to bring conditions of service in HSE into line with common conditions across the public service . The Labour Court has ordered that common conditions be imposed on all staff in the Public Health Service who pay the pension levy and are subject to the pay cut. This includes staff employed in voluntary hospitals and HSE funded agencies. As the Deal is designed to achieve savings, the worst conditions are likely to be imposed.
A “YES” vote would effectively remove all special protections for HSE staff in the Framework Agreement, in individual employment contracts of staff already transferred to HSE from Health Bords and in Section 60, Health Act, 2004.

Reorganisation in Health Services

“(a) providing, across all settings, planned services over an extended (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) day on a Monday to Friday basis and/or five over seven day basis, while also providing emergency services on a 24-hour 7-day basis, thereby reducing the staffing and other resources required at nights and weekends;” (Health Services Sectoral Agreement) The key sentence here is that the arrangement must “reduce staffing resources required”.
This can only be done by reducing income and imposing unsocial working, and all in the context of the pay cut imposed in the last budget !

CLARIFICATION

“ClARIFICATION” CONTAINS SIMPLY THE PROMISES OF A GOVERNMENT THAT HAS BROKEN ALL KEY AGREEMENTS WITH IMPACT ON PAY AND STAFFING. IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE DEAL— YOU ARE VOTING ON THE DEAL ONLY
THE CROKE PARK DEAL UNDERMINES PAY, PERMANENCY, PENSIONS AND PROMOTIONAL PROSPECTS in Local Authorities, Core Civil Service, Education and the Health Services. All existing contracts would be over-ridden by the Deal. For effects on staff transferred from old regional health boards to HSE, see overleaf.
BINDING ARBITRATION Ultimately, the resolution of all disputes about the DEAL will be resolved by “final” or binding arbitration by the Labour Court. This means that the union will be unable to prevent changes being imposed on members against their wishes if there is a “yes” vote.

PAY and Pension

The Deal provides for a four year pay and pensions freeze regardless of price rises A severe bout of inflation would severely reduce the value of pay and pensions There is no guarantee against further pay reductions or of restoration of the pay cut Conditions of Service will already have been devastated before the government is required to decide whether to use the escape clause under the “clarification” of the Deal.

RECRUITMENT BAN

has been accepted by IMPACT/ICTU leaderships and the remaining staff will carry out the extra work. Dismissal of Temporary Staff will continue. The statement in the “clarification” that the staffing moratorium is “independent” of the deal is pure posturing on both sides with no effect . REDEPLOYMENTto posts across the public service and beyond the 45km guideline and even to posts outside a profession is in the DEAL. Compulsory Redundancy is accepted by public service unions for permanent and CID staff for the first time, if the employee cannot accept redeployment.

Promotion

–Extract from general Public Service Proposals-: “The parties agree that, — skilled personnel from outside the Public Service will be recruited to secure scarce and needed skills at all levels. Merit-based, competitive promotion policies will be the norm. — with promotion and incremental progression linked in all cases to performance”.All existing promotional arrangements will have to be brought into line with the above. Promotional opportunities for internal staff will be reduced . Individual Performance Management Development Systems will be applied everywhere. Increments are awarded currently unless management specifically objects in the case of an individual This will now change and your assessing superior will be in a position to block your increment each year following an individual assessment under PMDS.

Outsourcing

to non-trade union employments which are only required to pay the minimum wage and other legally enforceable wage rates is part of the DEAL. Clarification specifies that outsourcing will apply to all parts of the public service(eg professional services). Because the government set aside T2016, unions were in a position to resist outsourcing, but the Croke Park negotiators agreed to put it back into the new deal. This is an engine designed to reduce pay rates across the public sector. It will undermine trade union power.
This leaflet has been produced by IMPACT members across several branches

The Idea of a University: an Essay in Support of Professor Tom Garvin’s Thesis of Grey Philistines Taking Over Our Universities, Jim Mc Kernan, East Carolina

Jim McKernan
Professor,
Social and Cultural Foundations of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA Email mckernanj@ecu.edu

Introduction

Professor Tom Garvin’s eloquent and critical essay “Grey philistines taking over our universities” is cogent, timely, and also necessary reading at this critical juncture in Irish higher education. His remarks, which invite widespread discussion and debate, are not only applicable to education at University College Dublin, but for education in the round. I also write as a former lecturer in the Faculty of Arts who watched how the university began to ape the same processes which drove the Irish Celtic Tiger and adopted much of that education-for-profit strategy as a prolegomenon for the current situation. I have chosen as the title of my essay that of John Henry Cardinal Newman in his famous work The Idea of a University based on lectures he gave in setting up the Catholic University of Ireland in 1854; now University College Dublin. It is instructive to note that Professor Garvin’s thesis is in accord with the sentiments of Cardinal Newman. It is of further notable interest that plans are afoot to canonize Cardinal Newman in September of this year. This should be a big event for University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland. I feel sure Cardinal Newman would roll over in his grave were he to see how “education” is conducted at the university he established. It is my thesis that we are in danger of losing our concept of education in favour of lower notions of instruction and training . Let me explain. By ‘training” I mean a process which suggests the acquisition of skills and the enhancing of performance capacities. By ‘instruction’ I mean learning facts and new information-the results of retention. But by ‘education’ one understands induction into the forms and fields of knowledge: those thought processes and intellectual activities that allow one to know the epistemologies of the culture so that we can think rationally, by using it. Too often nowadays, even folks in universities confuse training and instruction with pure ‘education’. We lose sight of this concept of education at our peril.

Professor Garvin is right to lament that intellectual activity for its own sake is being hi-jacked in favour ofa penchant for managerialism and the intrusions of technical rationality so characteristic of the business-industrial complex today. Traditional (basic) research, what Garvin calls “blue sky” inquiry, in the human and social sciences is being viewed as inappropriate in favour of applied scientific “evidence-based” research methodologies where grant money is being currently channeled. This strategy is acknowledged as the legitimate way forward in official policy statements from the OECD and US Federal Government on the future of research in higher education. Those who have sought to find the truth through historical and other qualitative research methods are being ignored by funding agents across the Western World.
Professor Garvin’s thesis is sustainable. Personally, this author witnessed the same rampant technical rationality when I accepted the first Deanship of Education at Limerick University. I resigned and resumed my professorial duties in America apart from that environment. I admit I expected some of this managerialism at Limerick, which had emerged from a technological base, but not the out-of-control intrusions of technical rationality resulting in a now discredited “Total Quality Management” strategy (which has been abandoned in most American universities) for the entire university and its emphasis on “entrepreneurship”. I see this managerialism evident in every facet of education today in both the USA and Ireland. Yesterday I heard the Governor of North Carolina, a former teacher, Beverley Perdue; state that the first word a six year old should learn should be “entrepreneurship”. She was delighted to learn that our local Pitt Community College had received 21 million dollars of the President’s Stimulus Package to set up IT programs to educate hospital administrators digitalize medical recordkeeping.
What is the aim of a university education? Let us recount what Cardinal Newman argued:
“I am asked what is the end of University Education, and of the Liberal or Philosophical Knowledge which I conceive it to impart: I answer, that what I have already {103} said has been sufficient to show that it has a very tangible,real, and sufficient end, though the end cannot be divided from that knowledge itself. Knowledge is capable of being its own end. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward.”
Further on in the work Newman expands his ideas:
“Now, when I say that Knowledge is, not merely a means to something beyond it, or the preliminary of certain arts into which it naturally resolves, but an end sufficient to rest in and to pursue for its own sake, surely I am uttering no paradox, for I am stating what is both intelligible in itself, and has ever been the common judgment of philosophers and the ordinary feeling of mankind. I am saying what at least the public opinion of this day ought to be slow to deny, considering how much we have heard of late years, in opposition to Religion, of entertaining, curious, and various knowledge. I am but saying what whole volumes have been written to illustrate, viz., by a selection from the records of Philosophy, Literature, and Art, in all ages and countries, of a body of examples, to show how the most unpropitious circumstances have been unable to conquer an ardent desire for the acquisition of knowledge. That further advantages accrue to us and redound to others by its possession, over and above what it is in itself, I am very far indeed from denying; but,independent of these, we are satisfying a direct need of our nature in its very acquisition; and, whereas our nature, unlike that of the inferior creation, does not at once reach its perfection, but depends, in order to it, on a number of external aids and appliances, Knowledge, as one of the principal of these, is valuable for what its very presence in us does for us after the manner of a habit, even though it be turned to no further account, nor subserve any direct end.”

Newman argues consistently that knowledge for its own sake is a significant purpose of a scholar in a university-moreover, this is the very essence of conduct within a liberal education:
“This process of training, by which the intellect, instead of being formed or sacrificed to some particular or accidental purpose, some specific trade or profession, or study or science, is disciplined for its own sake, for the perception of its own proper object, and for its own highest culture, is called Liberal Education; and though there is no one in whom it is carried as far as is conceivable, or whose intellect would be a pattern of what intellects should be made, yet there is scarcely any one but may gain an idea of what real training is, and at least look towards it, and make its true scope and result, not something else, his standard of excellence; {153} and numbers there are who may submit themselves to it, and secure it to themselves in good measure. And to set forth the right standard, and to train according to it, and to help forward all students towards it according to their various capacities, this I conceive to be the business of a University.

The Technologisation of Education

It should be pointed out that this notion of technical means-ends rationality in education began with the Americans. In particular Franklin Bobbitt, a former engineer who became Dean of the School of Education at Stanford University. In 1918 Bobbitt argued for a form of efficiency-accountability that schools should be like factories where students are viewed as products and that the physical plant should be utilized on a shift basis throughout the school year. He became so enthralled with this that he produced a book outlining some 800 behaviours all responsible citizens should be able to perform. He operationlised the use of behavioural performance objectives and the American and European systems of educational planning have never been the same since. This “Science in Education” movement led to Educational Psychologists embracing Behaviourism as an appropriate theory for curriculum design. That is, that teachers should state specific outcomes in students in terms of behavioural performances in order to be accountable that students had mastered subject knowledge. I liked Professor Garvin’s comment relating to a remark made by Picasso that predicting outcomes makes a nonsense of any activity and in essence in education it would deny the use of imagination. My mentor Professor Lawrence Stenhouse once remarked

“Education as induction into knowledge is successful to the extent
that it makes the behavioural outcomes of the students unpredictable”

Professor Garvin also grasps an important nettle in commenting about the loss of imagination in educational culture. Mary Warnock, the English philosopher wrote that “imagination is the faculty by means of which one is able to envisage things as they are not”. The trend nowadays in education is to plan all the outcomes as behaviours in advance of instruction, and test student by means of objective type multiple choice tests to see if they have mastered this ‘rhetoric of conclusions’. On this model students never exercise their own creative imagination or critical discourse-they select random options already printed on the test page. This is not education but mere training and instruction-teaching to the test.

Conclusions

I believe that there are very real possibilities that education can be reclaimed from these ‘grey philistines and merchants of managerialism’. The idea of a university is that it is a community of scholars having a discourse, using a variety of research methods appropriate to their discipline to advance knowledge, to contribute to searching for truth through inquiry, to conduct teaching of this knowledge and these methods, so that students can get into perspective the knowledge which they do not yet possess and to offer service to the university and the community. The main thing is to permit academic freedom in the pursuit of these inquiries. Academic freedom means that lecturers and professors have an unfettered right to select materials and methods appropriate to their discipline and the right to conduct research that matches their curiosity and interests. The health of Irish education and society is indeed tied to this notion of academic freedom-which is being eroded at present by arguments to abolish tenure with fixed term appointments and by not appointing Professors to disciplinary chairs such as the languages (German, Spanish, French) at UCD, which Professor Caldicott, pointed out in his response to Professor Garvin’s piece. The UCD administration seems only interested in the “bottom line” here-saving funds through cost cutting vital disciplinary appointments and operations that have been hugely successful like the Language Laboratory. The reorganization of University College Dublin into Schools that are integrated and interdisciplinary does not speak to the definite epistemology of the disciplines of knowledge as historically understood. This reorganization, albeit in the name of efficiency, seems utterly incoherent to this observer. I have watched in my lifetime whole departments of Logic, Philosophy, (subjects at the core of a liberal education from medieval times) and indeed Colleges of Teacher Education, disappear due to the ‘bottom line’ mentality. The control by universities and other agencies of higher education over teaching, research and learning and their inalienable right to academic freedom must not be relinquished to external agencies and government. Dublin City University President Ferdinand Von Prondzynski’s accountability arguments are not sound. The logic of his argument makes academic freedom a joke. He says that universities should not be a place of leisurely intellectual pursuits. This is what has characterized the greatest universities throughout history. As scholars we are accountable to the standards immanent in our respective disciplines first. Of course it is right that any government or foundation granting money for research demands accountability-but the idea that these agents would run the university is a sacrilege. Further the idea that the Arts disciplines would not be funded is indicative of a Philistinian philosophy of education. As Professor Garvin suggested , one of the better ideas of mankind was to establish universities where truth and knowledge could be pursued for their own sake. I would argue that it was the setting up of universities in the 11th century in Europe (first in Italy by the Pope at Salerno and Bologna) that saved world culture and literacy from extinction during the ‘Dark Ages’. Ireland, to give her fair dues, played an essential role in establishing Monastic Schools keeping learning alive in a desperate time during the early Middle Ages. Hence the phrase “land of saints and scholars”. In this respect we owe a great debt also to our Arab friends who had perhaps the greatest institutes of higher education by the 9th and 10th centuries and who had transcribed many of the lost works of the Greeks and Roman scholars. My favourite scholar was, however, Peter Abelard, (1079-1142) the Scholastic philosopher and logician, who criticized state and church and was perhaps the greatest scholar of Paris in his day and precursor to the establishment of the secular University of Paris in or around 1160 A.D. Abelard taught us that the critical thought of an independent and free scholar would be a valuable aspect of higher education. We need to respect the various methods by which scholarship is engaged and invite our students into this search. It is a search that does not discriminate between the arts and sciences. That, I believe, is the idea of a university.

May 23rd, 2010

The full extent of the treachery of government and bankers has yet to become clear.

The full extent of the treachery of government and bankers and the damage done by them to Irish National interests has yet to become clear.

In a truly frightening article, Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at UCD, analyses the problems yet to be faced and makes recommendations.—Irish Times 22/05/2010

Burden of Irish debt could yet eclipse that of Greece

Sat, May 22, 2010
OPINION: What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the September 2008 bank bailout, writes MORGAN KELLY 
IT IS no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when. Unlike Greece, our woes do not stem from government debt, but instead from the government’s open-ended guarantee to cover the losses of the banking system out of its citizens’ wallets.
Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt to national income than the one that is sinking Greece.
On the face of it, Ireland’s debt position does not appear catastrophic. At the start of the year, Ireland’s government debt was two- thirds of GDP: only half the Greek level. (The State also has financial assets equal to a quarter of GDP, but so do most governments, so we will focus on the total debt.)
(more)

Morgan Kelly is professor of economics at University College Dublin
© 2010 The Irish Times

Unjustified Attack on Public Sector Pensions- 1-page resource, Sean Fallon ASTI

Following a good suggestion from Denis O’Boyle who is also a member of the A.S.T.I. Pensions Committee, attached is a one page document with information about public service pensions that can be used to “win the argument,” confront politicians or write reply letters to newspapers when writers criticise us our our pension arrangements. In confronting politicians and others on the issues of public service pay and pensions it is important to have as much information as possible and to use it to counter the relentless “spin” that is being orchestrated by members of political parties in pursuit of their own agenda (note the singular).
Best wishes, and roll on the Summer,

Seán.
Click for 1 page document.

Croke Park deal is bad for workers and public, David Hughes, INMO, Irish Times

Wed, May 19, 2010
OPINION: Alternative to deal is not industrial mayhem, writes DAVE HUGHES 
IT IS considered almost heresy to speak against the so-called Croke Park deal. A tyranny of consensus has emerged that voting against it means industrial mayhem in the public service, and bedlam for the public. The opposite to having an agreement, it is suggested, is going on strike.
The opposite to having an agreement is simply not having one. And that is not such a terrible thing in these uncertain times. The deal binds only one party – the public sector worker. The Government has said it will not be bound by it in an “unforeseen budgetary deterioration”; the clarification is that they will tell Congress of their intention to depart from it before they actually do it.
We are told the deal will give certainty that there will be no further pay cuts. Well, it does not. It says your pay will not be cut if you comply with the agreement, particularly redeployment and flexibility. So if you do not accept redeployment of up to 45km from your base, can your pay be cut?
You have heard it guarantees no compulsory redundancy, but again this is conditional on total compliance with the agreement, especially on redeployment and flexibility. The Croke Park proposals are highly conditional promises in return for absolute compliance with Government policy, no matter how mistaken or unfairly applied. It requires the silencing of those who dare to defend their service, job or community. It is in fact industrial peace against a threat of further pay cuts for noncompliance.
For nurses and midwives this means, among other things:
a) that the health service will lose 3,500 acute beds in a situation where hundreds wait on trolleys every day as it is;
b) that 6,000 jobs must go when already almost 2,000 nurses and midwives have been lost in the past two years; and
c) continuation of the health service-crippling moratorium.
It’s hard to conceive such an outcome for a campaign which brought people to the streets for the protection of public services and restoration of pay.
The proposals are bad for nurses and midwives, patients of the health service, the community in need of public services – and they are also bad for Ireland. Voting no will not lead to nurses and midwives going on strike.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has put forward alternative ways of delivering the health service within budget. Voting no means bringing an end to the current campaign of action, and an acceptance that it has failed. Any further campaign will only happen following a ballot of all members and a new mandate. Those who say there is no alternative are wrong.
The Croke Park proposals cannot be presented as a success. They are a failure on every count. They will not lead to a restoration of pay in 2011, and the annual review mentioned therein is already there by law.
The proposals require acceptance of every policy of this Government to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by 2014 in a situation where it is now 15 per cent of GDP, and the situation has worsened since the proposals emerged. They do not guarantee pay; do not prevent compulsory redundancy; and require union consent to a continuation of the moratorium, which is crippling the health service.
The proposals are a failure for nurses and midwives, and cannot be seen as a successful outcome to a campaign of resistance.
There is no shame in conceding defeat, and to attempt to convince members that such a defeat represents success or the best option is delusional. Not having an agreement is far better than having a bad one. Even those most in favour of the Croke Park proposals concede that this is such an agreement if it is made.

David Hughes is deputy general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation
© 2010 The Irish Times