Primary school teachers are likely to vote in favour of industrial action today over deteriorating school buildings and their workload.
Teachers at the Irish National Teachers' Organisation congress in Bundoran, Co Donegal, are proposing a "day of action" in May, when teachers in a dozen targeted schools will go on strike.
They are supporting industrial action next autumn, in response to the burn-out they say is caused by administrative overload.
The industrial action will focus on 12 schools with the worst environmental structures in the Republic, from leaking ceilings to rat infestation and inadequate plumbing.
The president of the INTO, Mr Gerry Malone, told the congress last night the "scandal" of substandard school buildings included overcrowding, run-down prefabs and dangerous playgrounds. "The only answer is money," he said.
Comparing a broken-down school building to the embarrassment of the Government jet breaking down, Mr Malone said: "The Government must declare primary-school building an emergency which needs a massive injection of money. Primary-school building needs €300 million per year over the next five years."
The Minister's decision to delay the main part of the minor improvements grant pending the completion of the audit in 300 schools added insulted to injury, Mr Malone said.
The INTO general secretary, Mr John Carr, agreed, saying: "Schools need their grants now, not next autumn. Summertime is when repairs must be made in order not to disrupt the education of pupils."
A broken promise to a generation of pupils was how Mr Joe Lyons, a teacher from Limerick, described the election promises made last May for new classrooms which failed to materialise in 2003.
His school had been looking for appropriate accommodation since 1975, yet the Department of Education failed to plan for the growth in the birth-rate on the outskirts on Limerick city.
Mr Gerry O'Sullivan, another Limerick teacher, described his school as "cold, overcrowded and unhygienic". "We have 180 children in totally substandard prefab accommodation," he said.
Overwork, particularly for school principals, will be the issue for industrial action in the autumn, Mr Carr said.
The "intolerable burden of bureaucracy being piled on our members . . . has brought our members to breaking point," Mr Malone added.
Principals are likely to insist on a work-to-rule. "Principals are fed up being architects, planners and fund-raisers when they also have the education of their pupils to ensure," Mr Carr said.
The Irish Primary Principals' Network said every new education initiative and policy development, combined with inadequate secretarial support and "grossly inadequate" salaries, added to the overload of responsibility.
Three out of four principals feel that overwork is having a detrimental education impact on their pupils.
Annus horribilis at the helm of the ASTI: page 11