Free Just Mary by Mary O'Rourke Page B

found ourselves was
by working together, rather than against each other. Only through talks and continuing cooperation could a plan be determined, which would put the country on a more even keel financially now and
for the future. Luckily, Peter Cassells, who was head of the trade union movement, was a very astute man — and steady, sane and sensible with it. Bertie Ahern was the then Minister for
Labour, and he and the Taoiseach and the unions began in a tentative way to talk together to see if they could come up with a plan — a Programme for National Recovery (or PNR ). There followed an endless series of talks between the trade unions and the government, known as the Social Partnership Talks. Later, in relation to various programmes, other key
players were brought into the talks but in the beginning it was just the trade unions and the government, both sides fully convinced of the need to plan ahead in a realistic, problem-solving way
and both going into it wholeheartedly. It was clear to all that there was no way out of the current situation other than a coming together of the various interests, a pay pause and a determination
to work together to clear the miasma of Ireland’s debt.
    And so began the PNR , the first social partnership which highlighted among many other things the importance of Education and Health as the key tenets for a healthy future
for the country. Of course, during these talks and consultations, the teaching unions along with all of the other various trade unions of the day seized their opportunity, and put forward that the
proposed Pupil/Teacher Ratio cutbacks should not take place. However, Education and I were saved by the bell, so to speak, in that when the school year began that autumn, the cuts were not as first
envisaged and gradually the suggested PTR changes fell by the wayside, first in disadvantaged schools and then all over. The main capital cutbacks and all of the other
attendant strictures on spending were to be held to, however, and Mac the Knife got ready to introduce a lethal second budget.
    It was in the run-up to Easter 1988 that the Taoiseach and the trade unions, along with Padraig O’hUiginn, Secretary General to the Department of An Taoiseach, and Declan Brennan,
Secretary to my Department of Education, prepared to finally formalise the various measures to be taken under the PNR , which would relieve a degree of the pressure on many
interest groups and introduce a sense of coordination in how the way forward could be charted. After a difficult and at times very fraught week, it was Good Friday before all was signed and
sealed.
    I was due to embark the following Easter week on my second tour of the teacher conferences. This time, I was to have a far more difficult ride than the previous year. As the details of the new PNR arrangement had not yet been fully worked out, let alone made public, most members at the conferences thought that the changes to the Pupil/Teacher Ratio, with its
draconian effects, were still to be implemented. My first conference was with the INTO on Easter Tuesday in Salthill, and there I got the silent treatment. The INTO Secretary, Joe O’Toole — later Senator Joe O’Toole — was a formidable foe but a decent guy. Prior to the event, he had phoned me and Margaret Walsh, to tell
us what kind of reception we should be expecting at the forthcoming meeting — the members had agreed that there was to be no booing, but there would be absolutely no clapping and no welcome
either — just total silence.
    Nevertheless, I went along as planned. I wasn’t particularly upset at the prospect of being greeted by silence — to anyone involved in political life as I was, this can seem like a
reprieve: no heckling to be borne, after all! As I mounted the platform and took my place, the room was absolutely quiet. After the president had given his opening address, it was my turn to speak.
I stood at the podium. Something which always stood me