The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, saw his two most high-profile projects at primary level shot down at the INTO conference by angry delegates. His plan to tackle educational disadvantage involves primary principals sending the Department a range of information on the level of disadvantage in their school. From the information the Department works out how much money to give the school.

However delegates said there was a host of problems with the scheme. Declan Kelleher, an executive member from Ennis, said the sums paid out under the scheme were "tiny". He also said Littleton National School in Thurles, Co Tipperary, had a 30 per cent rate of unemployment among its parents and 60 per cent of its families living in social housing, "and yet, because its urgent application for help under this disadvantaged scheme was 15 days late it has been ignored."

The conference passed a motion recommending that INTO's own disadvantage initiative, A Fair Start, be implemented in schools rather than Dr Wood's scheme.

The Minister's much trumpeted initiative to tackle poor English language skills through the Drumcondra English profiles was also dealt a blow. The profiling system designed in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, tracks pupil performance by using a range of indicators which are filled in by teachers.

But the conference rejected the system "in its current format" and said members should not cooperate with it.