The national public sector strike planned for Wednesday, 21 October has been suspended. Public service unions agreed the move on Friday evening, 16 October, after talks with the Government. It means there will be no repeat next week of the 24-hour stoppage that shut Monaghan County Council offices and schools across the county last Wednesday, and cancelled routine hospital appointments.

The unions say their work-to-rule stays in place until a new pay deal is agreed.

What it means locally

Last Wednesday, 14 October, pickets were placed at Monaghan General Hospital, St Davnet's Campus in Monaghan town and St Mary's Hospital in Castleblayney, and all Council offices and public buildings were closed for the day. Our report from strike day has the full local picture.

With the 21 October strike suspended, that action is off for next week. Unless the unions reverse the decision, families, patients and Council customers do not need to plan around a strike day on Wednesday. Anyone with a specific concern should check with their own school or service.

How the deal was reached

RTÉ reported that a meeting of the 19 unions affiliated to the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) agreed to suspend the strike after discussions with Government representatives "over the last 24 hours".

Committee chair and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, left the European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday afternoon to phone him. "We had a long conversation where I impressed upon him the way in which cost-of-living pressures were affecting our members. And I believe now that the Government have been listening," he told RTÉ's Six One News. "Obviously, we need to test that in practice in a talks process."

The Government has appointed Kevin Foley, a chairperson of the Workplace Relations Commission and former chair of the Labour Court, along with Department of the Environment secretary general Oonagh Buckley and ICTU general secretary Owen Reidy. They are to carry out "a focused and intensive exercise with the parties aimed at constructing a basis for formal negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission". Mr Callinan said the process could begin on Saturday morning.

He told the Irish Examiner a deal must be reached in "days, not weeks".

Monaghan councillor had called for talks

Earlier on Friday, Fianna Fáil councillor Margaret Conlon, who retired as principal of St Louis Secondary School in Monaghan town last year and was recently co-opted to Monaghan County Council, told Northern Sound's Joe Finnegan Show that talks between all parties had to happen to avoid next Wednesday's strike. She said she fully supported her former colleagues on the picket lines, but that any agreement must be one that "doesn't bankrupt the country".

What the Government said

The Taoiseach said he hoped the initiative "will allow for all sides to move forward together into meaningful negotiation and ultimately to a successful conclusion". Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said there is "a real opportunity to make progress".

The last public sector pay agreement ran from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2026 and gave increases of up to 10.25%, RTÉ said. More than 300,000 public sector workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, took part in last Wednesday's strike.