Talks aimed at resolving the five-month-old teachers' dispute, which resume this morning, are facing a major crisis, with the Government refusing any advance payment for teachers. Earlier suggestions of paying all teachers £2,000 for supervision have been rejected in recent days by the Government.
With the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland also refusing to yield ground, prospects look bleak, although progress has not been entirely ruled out.
The general secretary of the ASTI, Mr Charlie Lennon, said he was aware that the situation was quite serious at present, but efforts would continue to reach a solution. He refused to speak further because the union was observing a media blackout on the negotiations.
The talks are widely seen as a last-ditch attempt to resolve the dispute before the June exams. Last night, one source said: "We are heading over the cliff."
The crisis in the talks comes as concern grows that this week could see further student protests, some of them violent.
The talks began yesterday amid optimism that a deal - based on a payment of £2,000 a year for voluntary supervision - could be agreed. In its original recommendation, the Lab our Court said that supervision should be carefully examined.
Since then, the idea of paying teachers for supervision has been discussed in education circles, but now it has been vetoed by the Government, which is not anxious to see the ASTI being rewarded for its strike action.
The other teaching unions - the INTO and the TUI - are also said to be nervous about any agreement which could look like a "victory" for the ASTI.
The talks have addressed the supervision issue, but only in the context of the ASTI joining a process which would involve the other unions.
The Government has been determined not to give ground to the ASTI, which opposes the PPF.
These concerns were heightened last week when, in a very significant move, the general secretary of the Public Service Executive Union, Mr Dan Murphy, said that his union would withdraw from national agreements if teachers received a deal outside the PPF.
The Government remains concerned that if the teachers get any extra money there will be uproar among other public sector unions. This is understood to have surfaced at yesterday's talks.
The ASTI has set this evening as a deadline for an agreement, otherwise its strike action resumes tomorrow.
The Government and ASTI are observing a media blackout, but a statement from the Labour Court last night said: "Discussions have continued throughout the day. However, major differences continue to exist between the parties.
"The discussions have not been helped by some recent media statements in relation to possible solutions to the dispute. The hearing has been adjourned and both sides have been asked to consider a number of issues put to them by the court."
The ASTI begins three consecutive days of industrial action tomorrow, with up to 600 schools expected to close.
Meanwhile, the Catholic and Church of Ireland Archbishops of Dublin took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement on the dispute. In it, Cardinal Desmond Connell and Dr Walton Empey urged both parties to "take this opportunity to seek a solution to the present crisis".
Senior church sources said that the issuing of a joint statement should be taken as a sign of "deep concern" over the current disruption to schooling.