The Minister for Education sharply attacked the ASTI and insisted that this year's State examinations would go ahead.

Dr Woods was responding to a Fine Gael private member's motion condemning the Government for its failure to resolve the dispute, and urging teachers to co-operate with the examinations. The House will vote on the motion tonight.

The Minister said the ASTI's decision to target the examinations process by withdrawing from supervision and marking and attempting to classify anyone who undertook the work as "strike-breakers," was extraordinary "and showed the ruthless intent of the ASTI leadership".

He added that "whatever about the legal status of such action, the attempt to categorise as `strike-breakers' those people who took up work which ASTI members have not volunteered to contract for is unworthy of a professional organisation and amounts to bullying tactics".

He wished to assure the House, students and parents, that the State would run the certificate examinations to the best of its ability. The results might be issued later than usual if delays were experienced during the marking process. A delay would be unavoidable in the case of the Junior Certificate. He added that he would shortly announce alternative arrangements to be implemented after Easter for assessing candidates' oral language and practical skills.

"I want to say that I am particularly aghast that, in implementing a ban on exam-related work, the ASTI action includes a ban on making arrangements for candidates with special needs to take their examinations.

"This is a further example of the ASTI's strategy of targeting the most vulnerable as a means of advancing their claim."

Dr Woods accused the ASTI leadership of continuing callously to pursue its demands for special and preferential treatment for its members above and beyond the majority of teachers and all other public servants.

"They are prepared to jeopardise the future of the most vulnerable of second-level students - the examination students - in reckless pursuit of that claim.

The Fine Gael spokesman on education, Mr Michael Creed, said he had been inundated with representations from teachers and pupils alike, who by virtue of the Government's intransigence and incompetence in working to bring about a resolution of the dispute, and the vacuum thus created, were now squaring up to each other in frustration.

"Herein are the seeds of destruction for the Irish education system in the long term."

Mr Creed said that Government should convene a meeting of the social partners as soon as possible and then meet the ASTI.

On that basis, he added, the ASTI should lift its threat to the Leaving Certificate examinations, drop any further threat of industrial action pending the outcome of the negotiations, and commit itself to a full ballot of its members. The Labour spokeswoman on education, Ms Roisin Shortall, said there was now a narrow window of opportunity for action to be taken to resolve the dispute. "If it continues beyond next week, there are likely to be heavy casualties among students and teachers."

She said that benchmarking had yet to prove itself as an effective mechanism for linking productivity with rewards.

"There is still much uncertainty as to what is involved. In many ways, thanks to the ASTI, its scope has been broadened."

It was important, she added, for students, parents and the education system generally that teachers were not alienated.