Membership: 21,000 in the Republic, almost 80 per cent female.

Style of union: Conservative with a dash of vision - courtesy of Senator Joe O'Toole and highly skilled full-time staff.

Pay strategy: Supported the pay deal, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), by the narrowest of margins - an embarrassing result for Joe O'Toole, incoming president of ICTU. Facing further grassroots revolt over pay after 6 per cent inflation made PPF deal look much less attractive.

Current battle to succeed O'Toole is raising the temperature on pay, with the two leading candidates, John Carr and Catherine Byrne, demanding a better deal.

O'Toole confident that Government will give more from the current PPF review. Also confident that benchmarking review in PPF - which links teacher pay to the private sector - will be fast-tracked from current date of December 2002. No movement on these fronts could even see the INTO joining the ASTI in some sort of industrial action.