Sir, - It's interesting to see An Taoiseach, having presumably identified a fight he cannot lose, abandon his usual softly softly approach for a real "tough guy" stance, presumably with vote-gathering in mind.
I would have thought it was obvious to any reasonably objective observer that the ASTI, having run a disastrous campaign and lost virtually all public support, is about as far out on a limb as one can get, and the real problem is how to entice it back in again without too great a loss of face on either side. This is highly unlikely to be achieved by the type of letter recently written by Mr Ahern to the ASTI.
A body of secondary teachers, subjected to the kind of total and humiliating defeat that Mr Ahern clearly has in mind, are most unlikely to provide the highly motivated educational workforce that we will clearly require into the future, if our recent progress is to be maintained.
Could we please then, have a little more statesmanship on this issue, and a little less political point-scoring? - Yours, etc.,
Roger Sweetman, Mount Egan, Kilmurry, Co Kildare.