The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland recognises that the country has benefited from the restraint of workers over the past decade in adhering to the terms of national agreements which restricted their ability to pursue pay increases and included clauses which provided for substantial pay pauses.

The ASTI, like the Taoiseach, welcomes this turnaround in the economic situation in Ireland and recognises that a lot has been achieved on the backs and sacrifices of workers, but without a reduction in profits for employers or in Government revenues.

The ASTI does not wish to return to "the old ways" of exploiting workers to increase profits and of employers refusing to negotiate on workers' legitimate claims. In that context, the ASTI has sought to pursue its salary claim over the past nine months through the pay negotiating machinery which was established for that purpose.

It has been frustrated in every attempt to negotiate by the refusal on the part of the Government's representatives to engage in meaningful negotiations. The ASTI wants to do business but the Government is refusing to engage in the process. The current PPF agreement was supposed to give workers a share in economic prosperity as well as include increases which would keep pace with the cost of living. It fails on both accounts.

The attempt to add together the increases provided for in the agreement over three years, to create an impressive 19 per cent increase, is a transparent effort to mislead. The reality is that the increases per year are running below the level of inflation in the current year and there is no evidence to suggest that this situation will change.

The reference to tax cuts is also an attempt to make people believe the Government is being generous. The reality is the Government is giving back to taxpayers money which it is unable to spend on public services and which it did not need to collect in the first place.

There are serious issues in education which need to be addressed. The recently completed report of the internal review of the operation of the Department of Education provides ample evidence of this.

THERE is an urgent need for the Government and unions to engage in a spirit of partnership in discussions about the implementation of such changes without an intervening bureaucratic and unnecessary body. The purpose and procedures for the bench marking body are not clear and there is no reason to believe it will be effective.

What is absolutely certain is that a provision to provide an increase for workers in three years' time, if it is the view of the body that their pay levels should be increased at that time, is not an adequate response to the demand from ASTI members for an increase. It appears to the ASTI that the process of benchmarking was drafted to ensure that a share in the financial benefits of economic prosperity would be kept from public servants for as long as possible.

The ASTI set out to avoid a destructive conflict by negotiating through its pay negotiation machinery. The Taoiseach's representatives in those discussions did not negotiate in a meaningful way.

There is now a brief opportunity, before the industrial action begins, for the Taoiseach to initiate creative discussions to prevent disruption in schools in the coming weeks.

Charlie Lennon is general secretary of the ASTI