Analysis:The power of the INTO has been underlined by the success of its class-size campaign, writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor
At 4am yesterday the bar was still full and the familiar ballads were being rolled out as the INTO members enjoyed the long night's journey into day. Since teaching is quite a solitary profession, the INTO members like to enjoy themselves at the annual conference. Friendships forged all those years ago in St Pat's, "Mary Mac" (Mary Immaculate, Limerick) and the other teacher-training colleges are renewed.
The latest gossip on that cranky principal or a favourite old colleague is savoured. But behind all the camaraderie and the good craic, there was a real sense this year that the INTO is a very powerful political force in the land.
The success of its campaign for smaller class sizes had unsettled Minister for Education Mary Hanafin and forced the Government into an embarrassing U-turn on the issue. Last month, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced 4,000 extra primary teachers. It was a bolt from the blue and it came only days after Ms Hanafin had appeared to rule out a commitment on anything like that scale in the Seanad.
She is entitled to feel some sense of frustration with the INTO. During her 2½ years in office she has enjoyed a very good working relationship with John Carr and other senior figures in the union. She has delivered on many of the INTO's key priorities.
She has overseen a transformation in the level of provision to children with special needs. To take but one example: the number of special needs assistants in schools has increased from 300 in 2002 to over 8,000 today. She has also delivered record levels of expenditure to school modernisation and, more generally, she has talked up the "special contribution" made by primary teachers to Irish life and society.
When she left the rostrum after her speech yesterday, John Carr showered the Minister with praise and spoke of her great contribution.
But Mary Hanafin could be forgiven for listening to this through gritted teeth; the truth is that the INTO campaign on class size cast the Minister as the villain in the eyes of both the public and parents. This was not the way a Minister would wish to be portrayed during the run-in to an election.
So how did the INTO and the Minister manage to fall out over class size? When the INTO began its campaign there were many sceptics who believed that the issue would not exactly fire the public's imagination. The early signs were not good. John Carr repeated the mantra "The big issue? It's class size, Minister!" at every possible opportunity, but no one appeared to be listening.
At the time, one member of Mary Hanafin's team recalls her appearance on a radio phone-in on RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny. The questions ranged across every possible education issue, but class size was conspicuous by its absence.
All of this was to change dramatically over the winter as the INTO rolled out a series of regional meetings. Teachers exhorted parents to attend and stand up for the rights of their children. The INTO's message that Irish schools still had some of the largest class sizes in the EU picked up momentum.
The response from the public was extraordinary. At last count, the union says some 18,000 people attended the public meetings. At many meetings there was standing room only as emotional parents spoke of how their children were suffering in overcrowded classrooms.
Mary Hanafin and her team were taken aback by the success of the campaign and the momentum it managed to generate.
But should she have been caught off guard in this way? The INTO is often compared to Fianna Fáil, the GAA and the IFA; it is an organisation with a huge national reach, with an influential voice in every parish and every townland. And it had one key advantage. Parents were always likely to respond to a request to attend a meeting which was important for their own kids - Mary Hanafin acknowledged as much in this newspaper on Tuesday.
The Minister had one other problem in countering the INTO campaign - the legacy of a broken promise.
The Government had promised to reduce class size for all pupils aged nine or under to fewer than 20 by this year; but it never delivered. She has made the valid point that she could comfortably have met this commitment but for a major expansion in responsibilities for newcomer and special needs children.
But this has been obscured in the public crossfire on class size.
It remains to be seen whether the Minister has been damaged by the class-size controversy. Until the issue surfaced, she was breezing through the education brief. She has a strong record of achievement in the brief, but she has not enjoyed the class-size controversy.