The Association of Secondary School Teachers, Ireland meets this morning to consider suspending its campaign of one-day strikes. The union's standing committee agreed yesterday to resume talks with a Government-appointed mediator.
Sources say the union may agree this morning to suspend the campaign while the talks take place, but this is by no means certain. However, the threat to ban exam work from early next month will remain in place until the outcome of the peace moves is known, probably within a fortnight.
Secondary teachers are also likely to be offered a chance to enter a new forum to deal with their 30 per cent pay claim.
The decision to resume talks was described last night as a major breakthrough. While several obstacles remain, the vote is seen as the most positive development to date.
The ASTI's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, said he was "pleased with the outcome of the meeting" and hoped a "meaningful negotiating process" would be agreed soon.
The mediator, Mr Tom Pomphrett, is now expected to begin intensive discussions with the ASTI and also to liaise closely with the other two teaching unions.
He is expected to offer the ASTI a chance to enter a new forum and process its pay claim there. There is already speculation that aspects of the ASTI claim may be addressed outside the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).
However, sources insist any overall pay award for the ASTI must be determined within the Government's pay policy for the public sector.
Unlike the other teaching unions, the ASTI leadership rejected the PPF and the new benchmarking pay review body.
The peace moves are not expected to start until Tuesday. If Mr Pomphrett does succeed in producing a workable formula, it will probably be put before a meeting of the union's 180member central executive committee in a fortnight.
The union's standing committee yesterday accepted assurances from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, that money docked from members for work-to-rule action would be refunded "without prejudice". The money will be refunded next week.
The union insists talks with Mr Pomphrett must be concluded within a week or it may pull out again.
At yesterday's meeting the text of Mr Ahern's letter - building on a commitment first made in his Irish Times article - was passed to members of the standing committee.
The next phase of negotiations could be the hardest of all. With the ASTI strongly opposed to taking part in the new benchmarking body, some other body or forum may have to be set up to handle its claim.
It may run parallel to the benchmarking body, but this may not prove acceptable to some ASTI members. Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, the influential former president, claims benchmarking would lead to the "industrialisation" of education, with British-style performance evaluation.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said last night: "I am sure that, with goodwill on both sides, the discussions held under the auspices of the facilitator, Mr Pomphrett, will lead to an equitable and feasible agreement.
"If the talks get started, I have instructed my Department to ensure that the refund will be made to teachers next week," he added.