The appointment of the union’s Vice-President, Patricia King, as general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is both timely and welcome. It comes at a moment of great challenge for the Irish trade union movement when her negotiating skills and experience will be hugely important in any future discussions with the Government and private employers.

She has been central to the negotiation, during years of deep crisis, of the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements which brought pain to tens of thousands of workers in the public service but protected jobs and conditions of employment.

In her 25 years as shop floor activist and trade union organiser she has fought many intense battles with employers and was key to the successful resolution of the dispute at Irish Ferries in 2005 when the employer sought to drive a coach and four through long established industrial relations procedures and to lead a race to the bottom in pay and conditions of employment.

On her appointment, she said that her emphasis will be on improving the lives and incomes of working people and their families and particularly of young people, whom she rightly said have endured a particularly rough deal over these past years of austerity.

We wish her every success as she assumes one of the most important and difficult roles in the trade union movement and we look forward to continuing to work with her in the interests of union members and working people generally.