Sir, - In the season of goodwill and New Year resolutions, can I implore Dr Michael Woods and Mr Charlie Lennon to consider a course of action which, I believe, might well end the current impasse relating to the ASTI dispute and bring students and teachers back into the classrooms where they both want and need to be. Without judging the merits of either side's arguments, I ask only that they set aside both political positions and procedural technicalities and give priority to the unfortunate students who are being penalised through no fault of their own, and who dearly want us as adults to lead by example and end this sorry affair.
My suggestions are simple, but would give both sides an opportunity to achieve an early resolution without implying capitulation by either.
I propose that:
1. The ASTI suspends all industrial action and enters the PPF for a limited time, say until September 2001, after which it would assess what progress has been made and if it is sufficient to justify discontinuation of industrial action.
2. The Government agrees to fast-track the benchmarking process so that by September 2001 the ASTI can evaluate the validity of Government claims that such a process would deliver on ASTI baseline requirements regarding salary.
3. An independent body be established to review the status of the teaching profession in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century.
Neither side loses face and the students and teachers are back in their classrooms. The ASTI has simply suspended its action for the moment. The Government must deliver on its claims that benchmarking will do what it says. Pressure is brought to bear on the Government to deliver something by September. Pressure is brought to bear on the ASTI to suspend current action.
The alternative appears to be an indefinite standoff punctuated by intermittent outbursts of mutual recrimination. There must be a better way. Let's try to find it . . . soon - Yours, etc.,
Arthur Godsil, Headmaster, St Andrew's College, Booterstown Avenue, Co Dublin.