School secretary meetings

Information meetings for school secretaries continue next week in Limerick, Mayo and Galway. Details available here.

National Safety Representative conference

The HSA's 2017 National Safety Representative conference takes place on Tuesday 28th November in the Croke Park conference centre, Dublin.

This major conference is designed with the needs of safety representatives in mind and will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn from a range of speakers on key safety, health and welfare topics. The event is supported by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Booking details and an event programme are available here.

Pensions for same sex couples

The Social Welfare, Pension and Civil Registration Bill 2017 completed its second stage in the Dáil this week and now goes forward to the committee stage.

The Minister for Social Protection (Regina Doherty TD) announced at the end of the second stage debate that she would bring forward amendments to the Bill at committee stage (in about two weeks' time) to provide eligibility for survivor pensions, for same sex couples in occupational pension schemes “in certain circumstances.”

While the exact circumstances are not defined by the minister, this is the first time she has mentioned same sex pensions specifically. IMPACT will have an update after the Bill goes through the committee stage.

IMPACT third level grant support scheme

Applications for IMPACT’s third level grant support scheme, to support union representatives in the academic year 2017-2018, have opened.

The purpose of this scheme is primarily for courses that will assist union members in their roles within the union and not only in their careers generally.

The deadline for applications is 5.30pm on Friday 27th October.

More information and application details are available here.

Dublin South HSE branch on Facebook

IMPACT’s Dublin South HSE branch have launched a closed Facebook group. If you're a member of the branch, please sign up for information and discussions. The page is available here.

Education chair addresses ‘Education is in the Red’ demo

Gina O’Brien, chair of IMPACT’s education division, addressed thousands of students at the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) protest march this week.

The theme for the demo was ‘Education is in the Red’, and called on the Irish government and the joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills to make a historic long-term decision and invest in the publicly-funded third level education model outlined in the Cassells Report.

Gina said, “No parent wants to see their child fall into debt before they even reach adulthood. All this talk of a first-class education system and access to higher education for all our children is just empty promises and shallow words if the Government aren’t willing to invest appropriately in a properly-funded higher education system.”

She also highlighted the strain on staff and services in the education sector that the funding crisis had caused. Calling for better and appropriate funding she said, “It’s farcical to think that staff can continue to give our student the appropriate level of service and quality of education they deserve.”

The demonstration was supported by the Coalition for Publicly Funded Higher Education, which includes IMPACT and other trade unions SIPTU, TUI, and IFUT, as well as the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union ISSU.

Game of Thrones star backs IMPACT on refugee crisis

Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham visited IMPACT’s Dublin offices in September for a special young members’ event.

Cunningham, an ambassador for World Vision Ireland, was presented with a cheque for €8,000 raised by the IMPACT young members’ group from their quiz event in May. For more on this story see the latest edition of Work & Life magazine.