The new vice-president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation is Joe Killeen, the principal teacher in Lough Cutra NS Gort, Co. Galway.
Joe is from Corofin, Co. Clare and began his teaching career at Kiltrustan NS in Strokestown. Since 1987 he has been principal of Lough Cutra NS in Gort, Co. Galway.
Joe became Gort Branch Secretary in 1987 and represented Gort INTO Branch and District 6 of the INTO (Galway/Roscommon) for over 20 years. In 2008 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the union to represent INTO District 6.
As an INTO Executive member, Joe represented District 6 on the Small Schools Task Force set up in 2012 to advise the executive on opposing proposals by the Department of Education and Skills to close small schools.
Speaking after taking office, Joe said he was looking forward to helping to lead members of the island-wide teachers’ union into its 150th year in 2018.
He said: “I’ll be working hard to ensure that the disgraceful situation where we have two different pay scales for the same job is addressed. The plight of the lesser paid teachers must be addressed in upcoming pay talks.”
