The Taoiseach outlined the circumstances in which he would intervene in the teachers' dispute when pressed on the issue on the Order of Business.

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said the public, the teachers, parents and students had lost confidence in the ability of the Minister for Education to resolve the dispute. He asked if the Taoiseach would enter into direct discussions with the ASTI.

Mr Ahern replied: "If the teachers indicate quite clearly that they are prepared to listen to recommendations of every part of the industrial relations machinery in the recent past, I would meet them in five minutes. But if they do not, I have nothing to discuss with them."

The Taoiseach said the issue was not about money. "The issue is that the entire workforce of the public and private sector has, under the terms of the PPF, agreed to certain mechanisms. They have done so on the latest negotiations as per December 4th when all sides agreed. The Government cannot move away from that."

He said the ASTI would like the Government to totally abandon PPF. "The Government will not do that. They would like us to abandon the benchmarking system. The Government will not do that."

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said there was an increasing danger of confrontation between Leaving Certificate students and their teachers. The Taoiseach, he added, should take that development into account in looking at the dispute over the next 10 days.

"If that develops along the lines which it is developing, the consequences will be absolutely dire."

Mr Ahern said that while he understood the frustration of students, it would not help to resolve the dispute for young people to abandon their classes.