School principals who teach have warned that they are ready for industrial action over the burden of their duties. These can include catching mice, cutting grass, fixing heating systems and checking the plumbing.
Principal after principal told the conference in Galway yesterday that the role of the teaching principal had become untenable and a reason to strike.
During yesterday's debate there was much laughter as delegate after delegate rose to describe some of the daily jobs they have to perform during a day at school as a teaching principal. These jobs ranged from fixing the heating to cutting the grass and catching mice.
However, the lighter moments did not mask the anger among delegates that nothing had been done in the last year to alleviate the workload of teaching principals.
A number of principals urged the gathering of some 800 delegates to vote for industrial action on the issue of under-resourced and under-manned schools.
The primary teachers did not take up the strike option, choosing to vote instead on a number of demands, including one-day-a-week paid substitution for principals to allow them to do their administrative and managerial work.
Ms Eileen Ward, from the Longford branch, said: "I won't be around for the next congress. I'll be burnt out. We need industrial action. We need it now."
Delegates also demanded that the point at which an administrative teacher is appointed to a school be lowered to the fifth appointment. They also want care-taking and secretarial support in each school.
Mr Finian McGrath, principal of a school in Dublin's inner city and a delegate from the union's Dublin City North Branch, said a teaching principal was "a class teacher, a social worker, an adviser, a planner, a leader, a childcare worker and, more recently, a bouncer".
He said in an area where drugs were a major problem "the problem shifts into the school - whether it is the teachers' bags being stolen, their cars being stolen, and threats and assaults on lives . . . This is not a sentimental statement. This is the real work for many communities."
On one day alone, he told the conference, he was interrupted 13 times while teaching between 9.05 a.m. and 3 p.m. These situations were "unacceptable in this day and age".
Mr Liam McDermott, a school principal from the union's Tallaght Branch, said he was also "a heating engineer, an electrical engineer, an interior decorator, a lock-smith and a mouse exterminator".
Mr Declan Kelleher, of the union's central executive committee, said: "We do have the mandate and the directive of our members [to strike]; we are not getting a response from the Department of Education."
Mr Fran Moloney, a principal from the North Carlow Branch, seconded the composite motion. "The fact that four out of five principals carrying out their duties also have full-time teaching hours can be nothing short of scandalous."
He paid tribute to FAS workers who have done the secretarial work and care-taking in schools in many situations. However, he said: "FAS is not the solution to the problem. This in real terms can often create more work for the overburdened principal."