The atmosphere in second-level schools has been soured as a result of threats to teachers by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, the president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has said.
Mr Pat Cahill said teachers and schools have implemented numerous modernisation agreements as a result of national partnership agreements over the past decade. However, while in the past there has been a "great voluntary aspect to the Irish educational system", Mr Cahill said he believed there is a real danger that this might now be lost.
"The basis of partnership in education has always been progress through negotiation," Mr Cahill said. "Yet the Minister's current strategy appears to be to threaten teachers and other education partners.
"The Minister's continued use of the media to threaten benchmarking payments defies the spirit of partnership ... and puts at risk the participation of teachers in the ongoing modernisation of the education service."
Responding to questions from journalists last week, Mr Dempsey refused to apologise for his decision to send inspectors into schools to make sure they were open on December 23rd last. This followed his threat not to pay the 10 per cent benchmarking awards to those teachers who did not show up on that day.
Responding to Mr Cahill's comments last night, the Minister said he had only responded to questions from the media, and had in fact not sought to issue statements on the matter. "I have consistently acknowledged the behaviour and professionalism of teachers and their contribution to our education system," he said.