RTÉ says ASTI teachers voted 'overwhelmingly'; The Irish Times gives a strike date but no margin

What both say. Members of the ASTI, a secondary teachers' union, have voted for industrial action. RTÉ News and The Irish Times both tie the vote to pay. Neither report is contradicted.

Where they differ. They describe the cause in different words. Each also carries one detail the other does not.

The timetable. Only The Irish Times gives it. Teachers would start a work-to-rule on 5 October. They would strike nine days later, on 14 October, unless "meaningful" talks had started. The paper puts "meaningful" in quotation marks, which marks it as the union's word.

The margin. Only RTÉ News calls the vote "overwhelming". It gives no figure and no turnout, so we cannot check the word.

What is not settled - The vote count and the turnout. Neither report gives them. - What counts as "meaningful" talks, and who decides. - The government's response. Neither report carries one. Nor does either carry a reply from school management. - Whether the other second-level union is balloting. Neither report says.

What this is about. A union for Ireland's secondary-school teachers has voted for industrial action because no new public-sector pay deal has been agreed.

How it got here. Pay for Ireland's public servants, teachers included, is set in national agreements. The government negotiates them with the public-service unions together, not with each union separately. The most recent, the Public Service Agreement 2024–2026, was concluded in early 2024 and was due to run until the middle of 2026. The union's complaint, as RTÉ News reports it, is the delay in agreeing the deal that follows it.

The ASTI (Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland) is one of two unions for second-level teachers. The other is the Teachers' Union of Ireland. The ASTI has taken action outside national pay arrangements before. In 2016 it withdrew from supervision duties and held strikes in a dispute over pay for newer teachers, and some schools closed.

Who is involved. - The ASTI represents teachers in second-level schools, which teach pupils aged about 12 to 18. - The government, a coalition led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, is the employer in pay talks. It sets public pay through the Department of Public Expenditure. - Schools, pupils and parents would feel a work-to-rule or a strike first.

What is at stake. A work-to-rule means teachers do only the duties their contracts require, so extra work that schools rely on could stop. A strike would close classrooms. Ireland's government usually presents its Budget in early October, and public pay is one of its largest costs. A settlement would cost the state money. If there is no deal, the dispute could spread to other public-service unions.

Where it stands. The Irish Times reports that a work-to-rule starts on 5 October and a strike follows nine days later unless "meaningful" talks are under way. Neither report says whether talks have been set.