Sir, - So the Minister for Education and Science, Michael Woods, is shocked by the threat of members of the ASTI to withdraw from voluntary co-operation with the Leaving and Junior Cert examinations next year.
I do not recollect any such outbursts from him regarding the disturbing findings of the Beef Tribunal; the Ansbacher scandals; the roles of the banks and their senior executives in swindling the State out of hundreds of millions of pounds; the daily revelations from the upper and lower ends of Dublin Castle where his colleagues, former and present, are generally to the forefront; the sad discoveries of the Lindsay Tribunal; and, obviously, he was not shocked when defending his fellow minister last week in the Dail against allegations of feeding pigs to pigs.
I doubt if there was any element of shock or dismay when it was brought to his attention recently that TDs were to receive a hefty increase of £10,000 p.a. Presumably ministers will obtain in excess of this amount.
He is shocked at the teachers' threatened action. Well, he would not be if he was doing his job properly. This action has been flagged for the past nine months when the ASTI withdrew from ICTU as they were entitled to and sought to negotiate a pay increase outside the terms of the PPF which they are not party to. The Minister has ignored their request for discussions on this matter. Membership of ICTU is voluntary, as far as I am aware. The ASTI also on a few occasions withdrew from voluntary supervision of schoolyard activities and standing in for absent colleagues and are now threatening, as is their lawful entitlement, to withdraw their voluntary input into the running of the exams.
The exams are still quite some time away and perhaps the Minister should seek advice from the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who has a good track record in industrial relations and arrange meaningful talks with the ASTI instead of making crass comments in order to obtain cheap publicity. The problem with the examinations has been caused by the Minister's intransigence and nothing else. - Yours, etc.,
Bill O'Connor, Member ASTI, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.