Good morning colleagues,

Today is the fifth day of strike action by Fórsa's school secretaries and caretakers. A statement issued by Fórsa yesterday highlighted support for the strike by 40 Government representatives - including the Minister of State at DPER(!) - with that particular angle picked up by Pat Leahy in the Irish Times' coverage, which also carries Emmet Malone's report from Leinster House on page 4 of today's print edition.

The Indo take a similar approach, featuring Fórsa member Sharon Coady, which also appears in the print edition.

Should the strike continue to attract media coverage today, it will likely be led by this story from Gorey, County Wexford, the largest school in the country, where "half of its students have been unable to attend this week or last as their school attempts to manage the impact of the school secretaries and caretakers strike."

Elsewhere, there are large volumes of regional media coverage, too much to list here, but includes support from the Cork Echo and an extraordinary open letter from a school principal in Tipperary to the Minister for Education: "...we consider ourselves family, and currently, two of our family are outside our gates. This isn’t right and cannot continue."