Sir, - The Irish Times had a reputation in the past as a "broad church", willing to present minority views. This all ended with the teachers' dispute. Your Education Editor, Sean Flynn, has led a campaign against teachers, both in print and on the airwaves. His lack of fair play was evident from the start of the dispute, when he stated: "This is one battle that the Government can't afford to lose", to his comment last Saturday that there was a "civil war" inside the ASTI.
Having spent three days at the ASTI conference in Galway, I can assure him that the union is united as never before in its campaign for fair play and fair pay for teachers.
Mr Flynn fails to understand what this dispute is about: the right of a trade union to sit down and negotiate pay with its employer, outside the PPF. When the history of this dispute is written, the ASTI will be seen to have been the only public service union that had the foresight and determination to save the soul of the Irish trade union movement.
The silence from ICTU shows that the trade union leaders also have sold out, lock, stock and barrel, to the Government.
I call on the Taoiseach to give up his pipe dream of the £1 billion-plus "Bertie Bowl", and tell the Minister for Education to sit down with the teachers and find solutions, before the dispute is carried through into the next school year. - Yours, etc.,
Aiden Heffernan, Blackrock, Co Louth.