Primary school teachers have again postponed a possible confrontation with Minister for Education Mary Hanafin over the planned publication of school inspection reports.
Their union, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), yesterday decided to call a "consultative conference", to be held on June 17th, on the issue.
The INTO conference last month decided to withdraw co-operation with school inspections until its concerns about the planned publication of the inspection reports, due to begin next month, are resolved.
The Minister responded that she would see non-cooperation with school inspectors as industrial action and a breach of the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress.
Continued non-cooperation could see primary teachers lose up to €1,200 in payments due under Sustaining Progress. The final 2.5 per cent pay rise is due next month.
The INTO subsequently announced it had decided in the first instance to pursue the matter through the conciliation and arbitration process, the established industrial relations mac-hinery for dealing with disputes.
In a further statement yesterday, it said its central executive committee had demanded that these negotiations be intensified. The committee, which met yesterday, had also decided to call next month's conference.
Its general secretary, John Carr, said the committee's stance was an attempt by the union to resolve the issue "without recourse to industrial action".
The meeting had heard reports from INTO meetings in all parts of the State, and these were dominated by concerns relating to the identification of individual teachers in the inspection reports, he said.
Mr Carr acknowledged that Sustaining Progress, had committed teachers to co-operation with inspections, known as Whole School Evaluation.
However, the manner in which it was proposed to publish the reports was "a substantial change", he claimed.
Ms Hanafin had acknowledged that teachers would be identifiable in the reports, while Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly had said there were privacy issues that needed to be addressed, he pointed out.