Amid increasing Government concern that primary teachers are about to reject the national pay deal, the Government has threatened to withdraw its offer of 1,500 extra teachers and other benefits if the deal is rejected.
Last night the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, made it clear that all provisions in the deal would fall if the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) was turned down.
Government sources admit to being surprised and dismayed by the level of opposition to the deal among members of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO). Not one of its Dublin branches has so far voted in favour.
The INTO leadership, which has recommended acceptance of the deal, is hoping that support from rural branches will be enough to counter the Dublin vote. This is by no means certain.
Dr Woods told The Irish Times last night that the Government would not provide any increased offer to teachers over and above the 19 per cent in PPF.
He said the taxation measures in the PPF would deliver "a further 10 per cent improvement on average in the take-home pay of teachers up to 2003".
The Minister warned that the Government's commitment to 1,500 additional teaching posts, more non-teaching time for primary principals and support services for schools were now in the balance.
"Teachers should be aware that if the PPF is rejected, these hard-won concessions will fall along with the generous pay and taxation benefits," he said.
Last week one Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) branch meeting attracted only 25 of a total of 700 delegates. Many INTO meetings have also failed to draw an attendance of more than 50 per cent.
Should INTO members reject the deal it would be the first time in recent years that members have defied the will of their leadership. Rejection by the INTO could also have serious implications for the Government's overall pay strategy, ahead of the special Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) conference on PPF on March 23rd.
At this stage it seems likely that ICTU will endorse the deal, but the Government is concerned that rejection by the INTO could have a knock-on effect.
Some INTO and TUI sources believe the leadership's task of selling the deal was not helped by the decision of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) to withdraw from the talks and lodge a 30 per cent special pay claim.
The results of the TUI ballot will not be known for another week. Members are being balloted without a recommendation from their executive. But yesterday its leadership countered in a letter what it termed "false, misleading and inaccurate" information from opponents of the deal.
The letter, signed by the general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, and its president, Mr Joe Carolan, said there was no linkage between the pay promised in the deal and school performance. "Irrespective of how a school performs, teachers in that school will receive the increases under the agreement," it said.
Opponents of the deal, Teachers Against the National Pay Deal, insist the concessions it contains do not sufficiently reward teachers for radical changes to the daily work.
They also believe that the agreement could clear the way for a British style of performance-related pay. Last night Dr Woods again ruled this out.
"Performance-related pay does not form any part of the new agreement, nor of my plans. This applies equally to performance of individual teachers and of individual schools," he said.