An insider's guide to education

They will not say it publicly, of course, but there is huge respect across the teaching unions for Noel Dempsey. The Minister is regarded as challenging, provocative, stimulating and very different from some of his predecessors.

Yes, he has ground to make up in relation to educational disadvantage, but two years on, his record stands up to scrutiny.

Dempsey has an impressive range of achievements. He has secured the money to sort out the primary school building mess. He has introduced a common school year, which they said could not be done. And he has won more parent-friendly arrangements for parent-teacher meetings.

He has also posed challenging questions about third-level inequality and the access record of the colleges, even though the fees initiative ended in failure.

Pondering all of this, one is left to ask: why is the Minister getting so little credit? Why is there renewed speculation about him being moved in the forthcoming reshuffle? And why has he allowed himself to be labelled "anti-teacher" when the opposite is the case.

Maybe the answer is that the Minister remains much too suspicious and cautious in his dealings with the press - despite the best efforts of his highly-regarded press officer, Grace Cappock.

Last week's conferences were a case in point. Dempsey had great news to announce, with the planned recruitment of more than 350 special-needs teachers. But you tell me - did he get the credit someone like Seamus Brennan would have milked for this achievement? Hardly.

Great line from TUI boss, "Gentleman" Jim Dorney in his TUI News review of Joe O'Toole's much-acclaimed memoir of his Dingle childhood. Writing about the former INTO boss, Dorney says he always knew that O'Toole was a cute hoor. What he did not fully realise was that he comes from a long line of cute hoors!

The usual ranting and ravings from teachers last week about those evil school league tables. Both TUI boss Jim Dorney and president Derek Dunne castigated any evil plans to publish the tables. At the ASTI conference, we were told that no parent asked for league tables and that no one wants them. So how come national newspapers devote acres of space to them? And how come parents never stop ringing newspapers to find out how this or that school is doing?

Prediction of the week: The ASTI president, Susie Hall, is set to become a media darling this year. Hall, an accomplished public speaker, sparkled during the debate with Noel Dempsey at last week's conference - and in a series of subsequent media appearances. Married to legendary PR guru Don Hall, the Malahide teacher will become one of the best-known figures in Irish education within months.