Sir, - The Taoiseach's message to teachers (Opinion, November 9th) is remarkable in a number of respects. He tells us that "new challenges cannot be addressed by a return to the old way of doing business". Too true, Mr Ahern, and that is why the ASTI decided to depart the old way of doing business. Partnership agreements were born in a time of economic crisis. They served the country well, especially the private sector, but they have artificially depressed the salaries of the public service. Hence the crisis.
The ASTI withdrew from central bargaining because that machinery had failed it and the teaching profession in general. It lodged a claim of 30 per cent, and having pursued the claim through all proper avenues is still no further advanced than the offer of a flawed agreement. Serious industrial unrest in the nation's second-level schools is imminent and Mr Ahern can only repeat that benchmarking will provide the answer. Benchmarking is an unknown quantity which we rejected from the start. It may hold out a lifeline for other teacher-union bosses, but even they have to be conscious of their increasingly restive membership. Besides, if benchmarking is such a wonder toy, why do the politicians not try it out first?
Mr Ahern's government left the nurses out, and though they eventually settled, by a mechanism that was made to look acceptable, he now presides over a shortage of staff in many major hospitals. He can hardly wish to be remembered as the Taoiseach who collapsed two vital public services, health and education.
He quotes the discredited PPF figure of 19 per cent without giving a time-scale. Could it be that he is too embarrassed to annualise the rate, because even those who are not accountants will recognise that it does not compensate for inflation? He further compounds the deceit by adding in the tax benefits that may come, 10 per cent no less. Why does the paymaster act hand in glove with the taxing master? It couldn't be to keep the rabble under control for another three years now, could it? - Yours, etc.,
P.J. Sheehy, (Wicklow ASTI), Coolgreany, Co Wexford.