Moves to establish a federation of teacher unions, representing over 50,000 teachers, will gather pace at this week's conferences - after the three teacher unions backed moves towards greater unity.
Motions urging deeper co-operation between the three will be considered at all the teacher conferences this week.
Last night, Jim Dorney, of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), said the case for greater unity was now undeniable. A first step could be a new Federation of Teacher Unions, where one joint executive sets the agenda.
John White, of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), has also welcomed the new drive towards unity. "There is an overwhelming case for more formalised co-operation while still preserving our particular identities.Working together, we can be stronger in serving our members."
Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) general secretary John Carr said the creation of a federated structure "would allow teachers to work even more closely together. It would create the largest and certainly the most influential professional body in the country . . . There is more to unite teachers than to divide them."
Closer links between the unions have been deepening behind the scenes since ASTI members agreed to return to the Ictu last year.
The unions worked on the preparation of a joint pay claim to the benchmarking body. There has also been continuing co-operation between representatives on the new Teaching Council and in regular meetings of the Teacher Conciliation Council.
Many ASTI members believe their pay campaign five years ago ultimately failed because of a lack of support from the other teacher unions. One source said: "A new superunion, or even a strong federation between all three, would have much greater muscle."
As all teachers are working to a common salary scale, many believe it would make good sense for them to develop closer links.
Some sources are not ruling out a possible merger between the ASTI and TUI. However, the INTO, representing primary teachers, may be less enthusiastic about any formal merger with the other unions.
In 1994 talks on a merger between the ASTI and TUI achieved progress but failed because of local difficulties.
Mr Dorney said the problems now facing the teacher-union movement were such that "they require a collective wide-ranging response with a united approach . . . the challenge now is to investigate possible structures."
He added: "Standing still is not an option and looking back is not an option. The extent and scale of change we now face is such as to demand a bold initiative.
"The sole criteria should be: would such an initiative better represent our members, the education system and the students we teach? I think it undoubtedly would."
