The decision by secondary teachers to accept the Government's €37 per hour offer for supervision and substitution will be met with relief from parents, pupils and school managers. The vote heralds the effective end of the ASTI's three-year pay campaign.
It has been a very difficult and worrying period for pupils and parents. At one stage, a dozen school days were lost as part of the pay dispute. The withdrawal of teachers from supervision - as part of their pay campaign - also led to uncertainty and confusion in many schools.
The dispute has inflicted collateral damage. The strong image of the teaching profession - which is well-deserved - has been dented by the militant approach of some within the union. The union itself, once a byword, has been dented by its bitter, internecine feuding and the thinly-veiled attacks on those like general secretary Mr Charlie Lennon, who argued for a more measured approach.
What has been achieved by the three years of attrition? ASTI can claim with some justification that it helped to end the scandal whereby teachers were forced to perform supervision on a "nod and wink" basis without any payment. In truth, there are few other benefits ASTI can highlight to help justify an unceasing campaign of agitation. The famous 30 per cent pay claim has been quietly shelved. Three years on, the only pay offer on the table for the ASTI is the 13 per cent available from benchmarking. The union has no other feasible options on the table.
The irony of all this was that the union had a decent case for a substantial pay rise. The quality and dedication of the Irish teaching force has been a key factor in this State's economic progress. For generations, they have been under-appreciated and taken for granted.
But the validity of the ASTI case in no way justifies the methods which were employed by some in the union. Some of the scenes we have witnessed at recent ASTI conferences - attacks on parents' representatives and the vilification of those within the union who dared to take an opposing view - should have no place in any democratic union.
The hope must be that a settled period in Irish education will give all sides some breathing space. The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, should not be slow to deal with the residue of the dispute. He must help to ensure that the benchmarking awards are paid to teachers without undue delay. He must also address the crisis in teacher morale - and the sense among many in the profession that their economic and social status is on the decline. A commission on the future of teaching is a logical first step.