Strike action at institutes of technology and colleges providing Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses was threatened at the TUI congress in Ennis yesterday.
In an emergency motion, delegates unanimously voted to consider a plan of action, including a ballot for industrial action, over the cutbacks in institutes of technology.
The institutes have been given an increase of 1 per cent in their budgets for this year, but with inflation running at 5 per cent, that translates into a cut.
Delegates agreed that branches should not co-operate with management in implementing cuts and should refuse to co-operate with cuts that would result in job losses for TUI members.
Mr Eddie Conlon of the executive committee said it was "cynical in the extreme" that the Minister for Education was saying he wanted to widen access to third-level institutes, yet budgets for institutes of technology were being slashed.
His own college, DIT, was facing a 22 per cent cut in its non-pay budget. Cuts in DIT's College of Music were "an act of unmitigated cultural vandalism", he said.
Meanwhile, teachers of PLC courses warned that students and teachers would take to the streets if the Government did not urgently provide funding for the sector.
Almost 30,000 students are doing PLC courses in 225 centres around the State, but the TUI has claimed that the sector is the "Cinderella" of the education system and is totally neglected.
Students don't have libraries, proper canteens, adequate heating or sports facilities, teachers said yesterday.
One said the extent of her library was a trolley, which could never be found when needed. Other colleges had computers, but no technicians to service them.
The Department of Education commissioned McIver Consulting to carry out a review of the sector, and the Minister received the report earlier this month.
The report included a range of recommendations for upgrading the sector, including a new administrative structure for all further education colleges.
However, the report has not yet been published, and teachers fear it will not be implemented.
Mr Tom Creedon, of the Central Technical Institute in Waterford said that, while Mr Dempsey may not have read the report, it was clear that the Minister for Finance had read it and had decided it was "a luxury we could not afford".
Ms Marie Humphries, an executive committee member, said students and teachers would be forced to take to the streets if the McIver report was not immediately implemented.
"We are the forgotten tier of the education system. We are terrified that this [the McIver report] is going to go on a shelf to gather dust," she said.
PLC courses provide training in a wide range of areas, including secretarial skills, business studies, public relations, marketing and childcare. More than 40 per cent of students are over 21.
The congress also passed an emergency motion to start a lobbying campaign if the Minister for Education removed the provision of a ministerial inquiry before the dismissal of any TUI member from an institute of technology or VEC.