Addressing the conference, IFUT general secretary Mike Jennings welcomed the new Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, and wished her well. He warned her, however, that she would do well to consult the “people who work in the system all their lives and days”.

“You have had a torrid time in your last portfolio,” Mr Jennings said in a message to Minister Coughlan.

“You must be glad to be out of there, and I am sure it will be very tempting to use the last two years you will have as a Cabinet Minister to make your mark in education.

“But please do not rush in. Please consult with the stakeholders. Please listen, and please do not go for stunts or cheap fixes.”

Referring to former education minister Batt O’Keeffe, he observed to assembled delegates that “under the heading of understanding the higher education system and how it works, she [Ms Coughlan] could hardly fail to be an improvement on her predecessor [Batt O’Keeffe]”.

IFUT president Dr Hugh Gibbons of Trinity College told the conference that the IFUT Executive had unanimously rejected the Croke Park pay deal proposals and he recommended that IFUT members reject them also in a ballot.

“These proposals are not about savings in the University system but about control and interference. The Government is more concerned about creating University Inc. and selling education for profit," he said. 

“There is no profit in pursuing knowledge for its own sake and rights like academic freedom are obstacles to a free market in education.”

Meanwhile, guest speaker Kieran Mulvey, chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, defended the Croke Park deal, saying it was “the best that could be achieved by negotiation in this critical economic environment”.

“It [the Croke Park deal] provides three crucial safeguards – no further pay cuts, no compulsory redundancies and no outsourcing without agreement,” Mr Mulvey said.

“It provides a platform by which the living standards of public servants can be restored by negotiation and contains guarantees by which they will not be further eroded.

“Conditions of employment will, as they have always been, be subject to negotiation and agreement between the relevant employers and trade unions.

“...In the context of current circumstances, the sentiment of Cicero effectively summarises the situation: “Iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero [The most unfair peace is better than the most justified war]”, Mulvey concluded.