There was renewed hope last night that a solution could be found to the current dispute between teachers and the Department of Education over supervision and substitution in schools.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, following a meeting with the TUI yesterday, is to invite the three teacher unions to talks next week on the issue. The talks will involve looking at the Department's current €34 an hour offer and whether it needs to be improved.
The talks are also likely to concentrate on whether the offer should be made pensionable. This is regarded as a minimum requirement of all three teacher unions.
Dr Woods is expected to participate in the talks himself.
Some sources said that the Minister would not have convened the talks unless he had some room for manoeuvre.
While the discussions face huge difficulties, the willingness of Dr Woods to convene them gave some teacher representatives hope last night. "Well, we are a lot better off today than yesterday. At least there is some movement. Up to now we were just stuck in a rut," said one source.
Mr Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the ASTI, said that his union's standing committee was expected to discuss Dr Woods's offer of talks either today or tomorrow.
It is not certain whether the union will take part or not, but some members are anxious for it to be seen to be flexible. However, other ASTI leaders believe that talks are worthless unless the Department makes a new offer.
The Department remains in contact with the management bodies, but the fresh round of talks may mean that preparations for getting non-teachers to act as supervisors are being put on hold.
"We want to give negotiations as long as possible to work," said one school manager.
The Department of Education has so far strongly ruled out improving the €34 an hour offer. Making this offer pensionable, however, may be possible if the Department of Finance lends its support.
The three unions hold different positions on the issue. The INTO voted in favour of the offer, but want it made pensionable. The TUI voted against it, but has so far remained committed to negotiating a better offer, while the ASTI voted against, but has also voted to pull out of supervision/substitution entirely from March 4th.
The ASTI is regarded as the biggest obstacle to concluding a deal, as its members appear to be the most dissatisfied with the current offer.
One wing of the union's membership regards the supervision issue as a chance to damage the Government. Others believe that it offers the chance to highlight for the public the amount of work done by teachers for no payment.
"We are quite happy for other people to come in and do this work, then they will see what we have to deal with on a daily basis," said a member of the ASTI central executive yesterday.