A hard oul' station for delegates and Minister

The new format for the Minister's contribution to the INTO conference failed to sparkle, writes Seán Flynn.

It was supposed to be the Brave New World of teacher conferences. There was loose talk about a "real interactive debate" between the Minister for Education and teachers, and a format which placed an onus on real communication, not confrontation.

But Mr John Carr, the INTO general secretary, summed up the mood of delegates yesterday as he moved to the second section of what was at times an interminable debate across a range of education issues.

As he moved to respond to Mr Dempsey he looked at his own heavy tome and sighed: "It's like the Stations of the Cross."

It was a hard station for delegates and for the Minister. For close to two hours, Mr Carr and Mr Dempsey ranged, in turn, across a range of education topics: special education, funding of primary schools, the professional development of teachers and so on.

But there was no debate and no interaction, and very little in the way of any response from the 500 delegates.

Indeed, at times there was an eerie silence as both speakers reached the next part of their script. I counted at least half-a-dozen delegates who had dozed off. The problem was not the content of either script, but the sheer length of both contributions.

"After 20 minutes most delegates are thinking of David Beckham or Posh or the mortgage or the holidays - fact!" declared one INTO official ruefully when it was all over.

Mr Carr himself said the debate "sagged" a little. The Minister was also less than impressed. It was all too long, he conceded wearily.

With that, Mr Dempsey braced himself for the lion's den known as the ASTI conference. By contrast, the atmosphere at the INTO conference is cordial and relaxed.

The INTO is very much the "teacher's pet" as far as the Department of Education is concerned.

Yesterday, Mr Carr threw the occasional glancing blow at the Minister, but it would have been bad manners to deliver a knock-out punch. Mr Dempsey, in turn, was gushing in his praise of the moderate, responsible, innovative INTO.

The relationship is working well for the INTO, which is - by some distance - the most powerful and influential of the teaching unions.

The Government's decision to recruit more than 350 special needs teachers, despite the public service jobs embargo, is ample evidence of its lobbying power.

To add to this happy picture, the delegates seem quite at ease with the union and with the leadership. There are no stirrings of an ASTI-like revolution.

About half of the delegates are female, even though women account for over 80 per cent of all 25,000 primary teachers. Most delegates are 40-plus, but there is also a fair smattering of young teachers in their 20s.

The delegates take the conference business very seriously. One in four of all motions address the crisis in special needs education.

The contributions from delegates were well researched and well argued. There was no grandstanding and no personalised abuse of the Minister and his officials.

INTO delegates like to play as well as work hard. Yesterday the conference closed at lunchtime. Many delegates headed off for what Van Morrison called "some mussels and a pint of stout" in Dingle.

There was also a golf tournament, a bridge tournament and a table quiz.

Last evening delegates were already bracing themselves for a long day's journey into night. There was talk of a session and a few ballads late into the night and into the early morning.