The Teachers Union of Ireland will not accept or buy into the concept of performance-related pay as part of any new pay agreement. Performance-related pay has no place in teaching; it will be divisive, unworkable and is totally unacceptable to the membership of the TUI both at second and third level.

If there is any attempt to try to coerce the TUI into an agreement that involves performance-related pay, we will have to seriously consider whether there is any benefit to our union in being affiliated to the ICTU.

I repeat: we will not tolerate performance-related pay for teachers in any form of individual appraisal. It is simply not acceptable now or at any time in the future that teacher remuneration be based on crude measurements of productivity or performance.

The payment of teachers on a common basic scale with appropriate differentials for qualifications and promotional posts is the very bedrock of the collective, collegial and consensus-based approach to education which has served our children so well.

Teachers encourage equality, teamwork and collaboration among their students. The prospect that they could be encouraged to be divided and consumed by self-advancement is frightening.

The revised Conciliation and Arbitration (C&A) scheme will not lead to performance-related pay - such predictions are simply scaremongering. There is no link between teachers' pay and the inspection of individual teachers. Any attempt to link performance-related pay and inspection to the revised C&A is disingenuous and false.

It has also been argued that teachers' pay awards could be reduced because of the reference in the revised C&A scheme to the need to take account of the nation's public finances. This is not new. In the past, governments have used this argument against us and we have fought it with industrial action and won. I believe we should have confidence in our members and in our union that we will take any action necessary to properly address and advance teachers pay and conditions.

The revised C&A scheme does provide new benefits. The new scheme allows discussion not only on pay but conditions of service as well. This is a significant improvement. The new scheme allows us to discuss the pay and conditions of service of part-time and temporary whole-time teachers. These teachers were excluded from the old scheme, and we had nowhere to discuss their cases.

The new scheme allows for a new interpretation which will prevent interminable wrangling about what agreements mean, and a new procedure for dealing with individual grievances will be approved by the council.

Therefore the new C&A scheme should be examined in a critical but balanced manner and the merits of it should also be recognised.

ON PUBLIC SECTOR pay talks, the TUI is appalled at a number of senior trade unionists who are advancing in public the level of pay rises that would be acceptable in any post-Partnership 2000 agreement.

Figures of 15 and 26 per cent over three years have been bandied about. This is not the way to conduct national negotiations and I would call on all parties to desist from public statements on future levels of pay which could undermine the bargaining position of workers right across the sectors.

The TUI is demanding that the early settlers under the PCW be compensated immediately for the differentials that have developed between early and late settlers.

We want that issue dealt with immediately and dealt with outside the terms of any new agreement that might replace Partnership 2000.

In the context of any new pay agreement, we want flexibility to allow for a comprehensive review of teachers' pay.