We haven't had a good Public Sector bashing thread in ages

Sensible teachers are being led up the garden path by their union leaders and their expectations will be dashed, leading to anger.

I heard the INTO national conference on the radio yesterday. Did you? If you did, you would have heard a union leadership who are living in cloud cuckooland. On the radio, I heard fighting talk about the Croke Park Agreement and how it is sacrosanct.

In normal times, few would disagree that teachers should get their dues. They should be well paid and well resourced. In fact, resources in primary should be increased, over all other levels of education, because we know that the more resources that are thrown at young children, the greater the outcome, in terms of kids from poor backgrounds getting a better education and a better 'leg-up' in life.

But from the point of view of salaries and pay rates, it seems that the idea that our country is bankrupt has evaded the teachers' union leaders.

Teachers are not being singled out, nor are they being picked on. There just isn't the cash out there.

But for the Croke Park Agreement, the writing is on the wall. The State can't afford it. Never mind all the spin we are seeing and hearing right now from the likes of the NTMA or the Department of Finance. There will be no going back to the markets next year. The Spanish and Italian bond markets are getting hammered. There is no way in the world that anyone is going to lend to Ireland, unless we offer a realistic way out of this and stop pretending that national wage deals signed in 2010 have any realistic hope of being paid.

It strikes me that the union bosses are leading their members up a garden path if they keep telling them that the commitments entered into in the Croke Park deal can be met. This can only lead to disappointment. And there are few things more irresponsible than false hope.

Look at this from the context of a teacher who has to consider an ambitious student. Mammy wants him to do an honours paper in the Leaving Cert. But you, the teacher, know he's just not up to it and would be better off dropping to a pass and focusing on the subjects that he is good at.

What do you do? Do you tell him and save him the disappointment in August? Or do you raise his hopes, hopes that you know can never be fulfilled? It's your choice.

The union bosses have the same choice.