Serious tensions have emerged between a new group representing the State's primary school principals and their trade union, the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), over pay and other issues.
The group accused the INTO and its general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, of not doing enough to represent its concerns. Such tensions have not been voiced as strongly in public before.
It said while the INTO was there to represent all teachers, including principals, in industrial relations matters, the group refused to take a "vow of silence" over pay and other difficulties facing its members.
The Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) said there was "huge dissatisfaction" with the way the INTO leadership was handling principals' pay and conditions. Its director, Mr Sean Cottrell, said the INTO's submission to the Government's benchmarking pay review body contained only "two or three" scant references to principals.
The IPPN is part of a new move to increase the profile of principals and it is working to become a significant player on the education scene. Many attempts have been made over the years to set up a principals' association, but they faced opposition and failed.
The IPPN, set up last year, is hoping to recruit all the State's 3,313 principals. A group for second-level principals is also gaining ground.
Mr Cottrell said the organisation wanted to meet the INTO and was going "to start asking questions" on what was happening about principals and benchmarking. "Somebody somewhere is afraid to talk about benchmarking for principals."
Mr Cottrell told the IPPN's national conference that Mr O'Toole "had not even replied" to the group's invitation to him to attend the Galway conference. This was greeted with boos by the several hundred delegates attending.
"Principals are not going to take any more lip service from the INTO leadership about what principals need," he said. His remarks were the first public indication of a serious gulf between the principals and the INTO.
Some INTO members are uncomfortable with the growing profile of IPPN, although two of the candidates to succeed Mr O'Toole as general secretary were at the conference. Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Cottrell said the IPPN was not interested in taking on an industrial relations role, but wanted to draw attention to the role of principals.
"What teachers do is not what principals do and what principals do is not what teachers do," he said. If principals had their case properly represented in the benchmarking body, "it would take us out of the doldrums salary wise and lift us up".
He said the IPPN did not want to make its own submission to the benchmarking body, but wanted the INTO's submission to make more allowance for the different role played by principals.
Senator O'Toole rejected the criticisms yesterday when asked for a comment. He said principals were represented throughout the INTO's benchmarking submission and the union was supporting a doubling of allowances for them and deputy principals.
He said he spoke to the IPPN on previous occasions and was open to meeting it any time to discuss its concerns. He said the president of the INTO, Mr Donal O Loingsigh, was present at this year's conference to represent the organisation, as were other leading members.