Teachers unions say they will ‘shut down schools’ in September unless pay issues are resolved

All three teachers' unions will start "shutting down schools" if the Government refuses to address the issue of pay parity, the president of Irish National Teachers Organisation has warned.

Almost 24,000 teachers earn less than their same-level colleagues - because of salary reductions implemented during the recession in 2011.

John Boyle of INTO told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday that "our patience is running thin".

"The cuts to the teachers were disproportionate... We have more cuts to fight than anyone else," he added.

Labour spokesperson on education Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is attending Monday's INTO conference in Killarney. "Pay inequality for newly qualified teachers was introduced by Fianna Fáil in 2011 and remains the one of the last major outstanding legacy issues of the economic collapse," he said in a statement. Fianna Fáil although in opposition have a confidence agreement in Leinster House with Fine Gael; they have also recently been critical of the situation that more-recently qualified teachers find themselves in. However, Senator Ó Ríordáin said in response "if FF were serious about the matter they would demand a pay restoration roadmap as a precondition for supporting the education budget this autumn." He concluded: "It is time they used the power available to them, as the only political entity in the Oireachtas who are keeping the government in power, to right their own terrible wrong of seven years ago."