The Government faces further difficulties in the education sector, with managers from 431 second-level schools planning to withdraw co-operation with new programmes from the Department of Education.
A group representing the managers (managers are members of boards of management and principals) says the Government's failure to sanction £6 million of funding to deal with chronic staffing shortages is the reason for the action.
It claims shortages have got so bad that supervision of pupils during break time and free classes can no longer be guaranteed.
It is worried supervision is so minimal that schools could be sued by parents if pupils are injured.
The managers' move follows a threat of industrial action from second-level teacher unions if their 30 per cent pay claim is not addressed by the Government.
It means the Department's new school inspection system could not be implemented, nor could various initiatives to deal with disadvantage and school planning.
Should the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) reject the national pay deal, the Government would have a sector-wide problem.
The annual conference of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents the 431 schools, is expected to vote to withdraw co-operation at its conference in May.
A motion calling for withdrawal of co-operation was already passed at a previous conference and it was stated then that if funding was not made available by now, co-operation would be withdrawn at all schools.
The general secretary of the JMB, Mr George O'Callaghan, said school managers had given the Department long enough to provide the funding, but no offer had been put on the table.
The JMB has sent details of its negotiations with the Department to the managers of the 430 schools. The letter lists the number of new programmes and initiatives introduced by the Department recently and compares the cost of them with the £6 million needed to deal with supervision.
As reported by The Irish Times last week, the three managerial bodies for second level schools - the JMB, the Irish Vocational Education Association and the Association of Community/Comprehensive Schools - recently sent a joint letter to Department officials demanding action to deal with the supervision crisis.
While it is only the JMB which is planning to withdraw co-operation, the other bodies could consider similar action at a later stage.