ASTI reverses decision, agrees to debate Dempsey

THE Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has reversed last week’s decision not to allow Education Minister Noel Dempsey attend their annual convention.

The union’s 23-member standing committee has agreed to allow a debate between Mr Dempsey, ASTI president Pat Cahill and vice-president Susie Hall in Killarney next Tuesday.

The decision on a 10-6 vote came just five days after the same committee agreed unanimously not to accede to Mr Dempsey’s request to change the format of the ministerial session.

He asked the three teachers’ unions, ASTI, the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), in February to stage a debate among delegates on the education system during his attendance at their conferences. But they have all now agreed instead to hold discussions between the minister and union leaders.

The ASTI turnaround is believed to have been influenced by interventions from Fianna Fáil TD Sean Ardagh, a neighbour of Mr Cahill.

Meanwhile, the standing committee has agreed to pay the 76,000 legal costs of a member who brought the union to court in 2001.

Bernard Lynch went to the High Court after being barred from meetings of the standing committee, on which he is a regional representative. He was alleged to have disrupted a meeting at the height of the ASTI pay campaign and prevented the committee from doing its work.

The court gave Mr Lynch, from Leixlip, Co Kildare, leave to seek a reversal of that decision but a settlement was reached. He was allowed return to meetings but claimed a subsequent union newsletter misrepresented the agreement.

A further hearing on that issue and the attempted internal investigation is due before the High Court later this year. He is seeking a ruling that his expulsion and the investigation breached ASTI rules because he disrupted the meeting in pursuance of objectives set by the union’s annual convention, its governing body.

At last Friday’s standing committee meeting, Mr Cahill proposed that the union pay Mr Lynch’s 76,000 legal costs to date and the motion was passed yesterday.

It is thought likely Mr Lynch might now drop the action, although yesterday’s decision can be appealed.

Moderate ASTI members might prefer not to drag internal matters before the courts again. Last November, ASTI general secretary Charlie Lennon went to the High Court seeking to stop an investigation of his expense claims by the union’s treasurer, Patricia Wroe.

He also claimed in an affidavit that serving elected officials of the union had harassed him, allegations denied by Mr Cahill and Ms Hall. Mr Lennon subsequently stepped down in a settlement which cost the ASTI about E200,000.