Negotiators involved in talks to end the teachers' pay dispute were gloomy last night about the prospects of a solution in the short term.
Contacts are continuing between the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) and a Government appointed mediator, but the union's strike in Dublin on Tuesday is almost certain to go ahead.
The Department of Education is willing to consider refunding teachers the pay docked from them before Christmas for work-to-rule action, but other Ministers are against the idea, according to senior sources.
The decision to dock the money was taken at a Cabinet meeting before Christmas and if the Department of Education wants to change the decision, it can only do so with Cabinet support.
General secretary of ASTI Mr Charlie Lennon said Tuesday's action and subsequent strikes in other regions were now likely to take place. He said contacts were continuing but the Government was making no new offers.
Other people involved in the talks said they were "completely deadlocked" and the situation was "very grim".
The talks are held up over the refunding issue, but sources said it was "ultimately a side-show", that other matters were also dividing the sides.
The reluctance of teachers to enter any forum linked to the benchmarking body was one of them, said the sources. Reports earlier this week of a "breakthrough" were described as "inaccurate and seriously misleading" by the sources. "The only proposal on the table at present is the one which the ASTI rejected last weekend," the mediator, Mr Tom Pomphrett, told The Irish Times.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, is understood to be prepared to refund the money but he does not have Cabinet support at present.
The Department of Finance is understood to be strongly against the idea of a refund without conditions. Mr Pomphrett said he remained available to both sides over the next few days but so far no new proposals were forthcoming. He said some ideas were exchanged between the sides this week but there was "very little" agreement on any of them.
With strikes to resume on Tuesday some of the negotiators are focusing instead on February 3rd as the next significant deadline. This is when ASTI withdraws from work on State exams.
Because the last proposal from Mr Pomphrett was rejected so emphatically - despite support from ASTI leadership - both sides want to frame an agreement certain to gain grassroots support.
A faction on the ASTI standing committee is resolutely against any proposal which does not refund teachers the money without strings attached.
This faction is also opposed to the benchmarking process (which compares public and private sector pay levels) and any other body linked to it. The former president, Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, has said previously the union should not go into any "dressed-up" form of bench marking.
Mr Eddie Conlon, a member of the Teachers' Union of Ireland executive, said the union's decision not to hold a special congress on pay was "undemocratic".
He said the executive voted against a congress only after it heard about the motions likely to be debated. Some TUI members want to form an alliance with ASTI, but so far its leaders have rejected this approach. They are pursuing the union's pay claim through the benchmarking body instead.