The president of the main secondary teachers' union has accused some members of the union's staff of orchestrating a media campaign to discredit her, in an internal briefing document which will be considered by the ASTI executive today.
The report by Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, which was circulated to 180 members of the executive yesterday deals with several reports which have appeared in The Irish Times.
Ms O'Sullivan cites some officials whom she blames for providing information to the media which was designed to discredit her. In one section she accuses an ASTI member of "scraping the bottom of the barrel" in a campaign to discredit her. In another she says attempts were made to get unfavourable publicity for her leadership in the run-up to the ASTI conference. There is, she says, a "culture of criticism in the media" about the ASTI in a memo headed "Pay Strategy".
The union's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon - who is not named in the O'Sullivan reports circulated yesterday - is expected to contest vigorously the allegations made by the union president at today's meeting of the central executive committee.
It is understood that Mr Lennon failed in his efforts to persuade Ms O'Sullivan not to circulate her discussion papers.
One union source said last night: "All of this is hugely damaging to our union. It will take us years to recover." The ASTI has for the past three months been riven by a bitter division between full-time staff led by Mr Lennon and much of the elected leadership led by Ms O'Sullivan. Against the wishes of the general secretary, Ms O'Sullivan pushed for the ASTI to leave Congress and withdraw from negotiations on the new pay deal, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF). Ms O'Sullivan has also signalled her readiness, if necessary, to disrupt next year's Leaving Cert in pursuit of a 30 per cent pay claim. Mr Lennon favours a more considered approach.
Ms O'Sullivan is due to retire from her one year post as president in July. In the discussion documents tabled before today's executive meeting, she considers in some detail the unfavourable publicity which the union has attracted in recent months.
She lays the blame for this at the hands of some officials and/ or standing committee members who she accuses of selective leaking to the media. In one section she says that a virtual walk out by head office staff during one session of this year's ASTI conference went unreported in the media, while other incidents designed to damage her were reported prominently.