IFUT Ireland, 31-32 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1, D01 YR92, Dublin (2026)

01/09/2026

⚖️ Today, IFUT takes the fight against precarious employment to the Labour Court.

Our delegation is before the Court today pursuing the outstanding Local Bargaining claim from the Public Service Agreement 2024–2026.

This claim is about the reality of working life for too many people in higher education: hourly-paid teaching, repeated fixed-term contracts, insecure research careers, term-time-only contracts, Teaching Fellow grades without proper progression, unequal exam-marking arrangements and the absence of clear routes to secure employment.

IFUT members made a deliberate choice to use the Local Bargaining process to tackle these structural problems. We could have pursued a simple additional pay award. Instead, members mandated us to use this opportunity to improve the position of colleagues experiencing some of the greatest insecurity in the sector.

We have engaged at institutional level, through sectoral negotiations, the Joint Implementation Committee and the Workplace Relations Commission. Agreement was not reached. Today, we are asking the Labour Court to help break that impasse and get meaningful negotiations moving.

If you are a researcher, hourly-paid lecturer, Teaching Fellow or other higher education worker living with insecure employment, these are not abstract industrial-relations issues. They are your pay, your contract, your career and your future.

And they change when workers organise together.

✊ That is what a union is for.

🔗 Join IFUT - link in comments.

31/08/2026

🗳️ IFUT will begin balloting all eligible public-sector members on Tuesday, 1 September, for industrial action, up to and including strike action. The ballot will remain open until Tuesday, 22 September.

✉️ What members should do now:

☑️ Check your email over the coming days for full ballot details.

☑️ Make sure IFUT has your correct personal contact information by using the member details update form - 🔗 link in the comments

☑️ Vote promptly once the ballot opens.

☑️ Speak to non-union colleagues and encourage them to join immediately.

✊ Not yet a member? Join IFUT now - 🔗 link in the comments

Together, organised and participating, we strengthen our collective position and our ability to secure a fair successor public-service agreement.

30/08/2026

Attention IFUT members: your Membership Plus discount card is going digital! Everything you need in one place:

✅ Access 2,000+ teacher discounts
✅ Find savings near you
✅ Your digital card wherever you go

🔗 Download the app today - link in comments

28/08/2026

👓 IFUT General Secretary Frank Jones featured on Virgin Media Newsraising privacy and safety issues over the use of Meta Smart Glasses, calling for clear guidelines to be implemented in 3rd level institutions.

IFUT is the only trade union in Ireland which exclusively organises workers in Universities.

27/08/2026

IFUT will begin balloting all eligible public-sector members on Tuesday, 1 September, for industrial action, up to and including strike action. The ballot will remain open until Tuesday, 22 September.

Full details, including information on how to vote, will be emailed directly to members in the coming days. If you are not yet a member, now is the time to join - link in comments

The ballot is intended to give IFUT the strongest possible mandate to secure:

· an acceptable pay settlement for the period from July to December 2026;

· appropriate pay increases for 2027 and under any successor agreement;

· the early conclusion and full implementation of outstanding claims submitted under the 3% Local Bargaining Clause; and

· protection against unilateral changes to work practices, the organisation of work or organisational structures without agreement with the union.

20/08/2026

🗳️ IFUT General Secretary Frank Jones explains why members are being balloted for industrial action.

📣 Only IFUT members are eligible to vote in the ballot. If you are eligible for IFUT membership, you should join now so that you can have your say and strengthen the collective position of higher education staff. 🔗 Link to join in comments.

ℹ️ The Public Service Agreement expired on 30 June 2026. There is currently no agreed pay settlement for the second half of 2026 or for 2027, and key commitments from the previous agreement remain outstanding.

That cannot be allowed to become the new normal.

Higher education staff have continued to deliver teaching, research, administration, student support and public service. In return, Government has failed to put a credible pay agreement in place and has not yet produced a serious basis for negotiations.

IFUT is balloting members to secure a strong mandate for a fair settlement.

The ballot will ask eligible IFUT members to authorise industrial action, up to and including strike action, if necessary, to secure:

• an acceptable pay settlement for the remainder of 2026;
• appropriate pay increases under a successor agreement;
• implementation of outstanding Local Bargaining commitments; and
• protection against unilateral changes to work practices, the organisation of work or terms and conditions.

A YES vote does not automatically mean industrial action will take place. It gives IFUT the mandate needed to negotiate seriously and to act if necessary.

A strong mandate is not an obstacle to negotiation. It is what makes meaningful negotiation possible.

19/08/2026

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions Higher and Further Education Group of Unions has expressed serious concern over reports that Palestinian students from Gaza have been refused Irish student visas despite having secured fully funded places at Irish higher education institutions.

The Congress group comprises a range of unions representing staff across the sector, including IFUT, TUI, Forsa, SIPTU, Connect and Unite.

Frank Jones, Chair of the Congress Group of Unions and IFUT General Secretary, said that Ireland must take account of the exceptional circumstances confronting students from Gaza when considering their visa applications:

"These students have been offered the opportunity to continue their education in Ireland after overcoming circumstances that few of us can begin to imagine. Their applications should be considered with an understanding of what has happened to Gaza’s universities, schools and essential infrastructure, rather than being judged as though they were applying under ordinary circumstances.

It cannot be reasonable to expect students whose universities, homes and communities have been destroyed to provide the same evidence as applicants living in normal circumstances. Where records, documents and educational pathways have been disrupted by war, the visa process must allow for that reality.

Education should be part of Ireland’s humanitarian response. Giving these young people the chance to study here is not simply about obtaining a university qualification; it is about preserving opportunity, professional development and hope for a generation whose education has been so severely interrupted. These attacks on education must be seen in the context of the wider campaign of genocide being conducted by Israel against the Palestinian people.

Ireland has an opportunity to demonstrate that its commitment to education, international solidarity and humanitarian support extends beyond words. These students have been offered places because they have demonstrated their ability and potential. They should now be given a fair and workable opportunity to accept those offers. The Congress Education Group of Unions are calling for urgent engagement between the Government, the universities and the students concerned to resolve the outstanding visa cases.”

Read the full story - link in comments

14/08/2026

🏘️ IFUT General Secretary Frank Jones argues that affordable student accommodation is essential educational infrastructure in The Irish Times Letters to the Editor this week.

✉️ Full letter reproduced below:

Sir,

I read yesterday’s front-page article (“Universities increase fees for student housing”, 12 August) with considerable concern. As I argued in these pages earlier this year (9 January), accommodation costs are increasingly determining who can afford to study, research and work in our universities.

Universities are educational institutions, not commercial landlords. Student accommodation should exist to make higher education accessible, not to generate revenue to plug gaps in university finances. We should therefore oppose an approach that expects universities to become property businesses, using income from student rents to compensate for inadequate public funding.

Affordable accommodation is now essential educational infrastructure. If Government is serious about equality of access to higher education – and about attracting and retaining the academics and researchers our universities need – it cannot simply leave accommodation to the market or expect universities to solve the problem commercially.

This is no longer solely a student issue. Lecturers, researchers and other university staff, particularly those at the beginning of their careers, can find that the cost of accommodation makes taking up a position in Dublin and other high-cost locations simply unaffordable. We are reaching a point where housing costs determine not only who can study in our universities, but who can afford to work in them. This will not serve the public good.

The solution is straightforward: properly fund our universities from public resources and develop a publicly supported system of genuinely affordable student accommodation.

Students should not be expected to finance an underfunded university system through their rents.

Yours, etc.,

Frank Jones
General Secretary
Irish Federation of University Teachers

13/08/2026

IFUT has prepared and circulated its Pre-Budget Submission 2027 to Government, opposition parties and key policymakers, setting out the measures required in the forthcoming Budget to address the continuing challenges facing Ireland’s higher education system.

At the heart of our submission is a straightforward argument: Ireland cannot deliver a high-quality, accessible and internationally respected higher education system without investing properly in the people who teach, research and support it.

For too long, higher education has been expected to accommodate rising student numbers, increasing workloads, expanding research expectations and growing administrative demands without the corresponding investment in staffing and infrastructure.

🔗 Read the full story - link in comments

05/08/2026

⚠️ IFUT has expressed grave concerns over reports that a significant number of Palestinian students from Gaza have been refused student visas despite having secured fully funded places at Irish higher education institutions.

🇮🇪 IFUT is calling on the Irish Government to:

▪️ Provide a detailed explanation of the criteria used to refuse these visas, including an explanation of how students from Gaza, where essential infrastructure including educational institutions have been destroyed, are expected to meet requirements that are impossible to satisfy in the current circumstances.

▪️ Approve the study visas for the 20 funded Gazan students and work closely with higher education institutions to resolve the outstanding cases before the commencement of the new academic year.

▪️ Reaffirm Ireland's commitment to ensuring that all students offered places through recognised scholarship programmes are supported in practical ways to ensure that they can safely take up their places.

IFUT Ireland

01/09/2026

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27/08/2026

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05/08/2026

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