The Education Minister says he hopes to have cooperation from the ASTI in the event of a strike, so that schools can stay open.

Around 500 schools could face closure if members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland vote for industrial action over pay.

The Department of Education would have to hire in temporary staff to keep schools open, and hopes the union can give them enough strike notice to vet the temps.

Minster Richard Bruton says he’s written to the ASTI: “Obviously we would need the cooperation of the principals because the principals would be key to deploying people who would come in and do the supervisory work.

“We also need to put in place systems for recruiting and vetting those who would do the supervision work so that we don’t interfere with the children’s education in the course of this dispute.

“But obviously we depend on cooperation from the ASTI to do that and we sought that.”