The Education Minister Richard Bruton has denied that Gardaí are getting a better pay deal than teachers, whose industrial action has closed schools today.

ASTI members are refusing to carry out supervision or substitution duties and are calling for an extra €796 payment.

The escalation of their dispute follows a pay deal negotiated for thousands of Garda officers last week.

However, Minister Bruton has warned that Garda pay rises will have to come from the Justice Department’s budget.

He also says similar increases for teachers could mean fewer services.

He said: “I plan to recruit, for example, 2,500 extra teachers next year in order to do things that are really needed to support children with special education needs, to roll out new curricula choices in the schools.

“Those are real improvements that will be in the balance if we don’t stick to the orderly public pay policy.”

Meanwhile, the executive of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation will meet today to discuss the Garda pay deal.

INMO Director of Industrial Relations, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, said: “What they have to do is apply exactly the same degree of urgency as was applied in the Garda deal because, correctly, Gardaís’ conditions of employment were looked at from the point of view of the type and nature of the work they do.

“We want exactly the same amount of imagination applied when considering the type and the nature of the work that nurses and midwives do.”