O'Keeffe: I took no joy in slashing education funds
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Examiner
By Mary Regan Political ReporterEDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe "took no joy" in deciding spending cuts which will see class sizes increase and significant reductions in English language support teachers next year.
But he told the Dáil last night that it was "simply the best that could be done in the circumstances".
Mr O'Keeffe said teachers" salaries will cost the Government an extra €300 million next year meaning cuts in education spending were needed in the budget.
The budget was described as an "act of social vandalism" by Labour's education spokesman, Ruairi Quinn, who put forward a motion in the Dáil calling for measures leading to bigger class sizes to be reversed.
The Government is expected to win a vote on the motion today.
Mr O'Keeffe said education cutbacks will only last two years but Mr Quinn said "for some they will be a life sentence".
Mr O'Keeffe accused the opposition of dishonesty on the matter and "stirring up" worry among families. He said the budget decisions mean class sizes will go back to 2007 levels.
"Are you honestly saying to the Irish public that the primary school system will be in crisis next year because we are proposing to allocate mainstream classroom teachers to schools on the same basis as we did in the 2006/2007 school year?" he asked.
He said the average class size was 31 pupils when Mr Quinn's party was last in Government: "Was there a crisis then, deputy?" he asked.
Fine Gael's education spokesman, Brian Hayes, said: "You are in office but not in power. You are a puppet of the Taoiseach in the Department of Education."
Mr Hayes also called for a pay freeze for all teachers who earn more than €50,000 per year.
Mr O'Keeffe said an increase of €302m in the education budget for next year is "a real achievement in the current economic climate" but added "I am not going to pretend that this amount is sufficient to maintain the current level of service in all respects".
Mr Quinn said classrooms are already overcrowded and will be more so as the population grows: "We have 450,000 primary pupils in our overcrowded schools. In 12 years time we will have as many as 650,000 according to the Central Statistics Office."
Fine Gael's spokesman on integration, Denis Naughten, said cuts in language support teachers will fuel segregation and every school child will suffer.
"The cap on language support teachers not only means that those students with poor language skills will suffer, but, in conjunction with increased class size, it will also result in teachers allocating inordinate amounts of time to some students and the rest of the class suffering."
Mr Naughten said there are 48,000 "newcomers" in Irish schools representing 160 different nationalities and 60% of these do not have English as a first language.
Mr O'Keeffe said: "Schools that require language support will still be entitled to get it. However the budget measures will mean that the level of that support will be reduced from a maximum of six extra teachers per school to a maximum of two teachers per school, as was the case before 2007."
Dáil continues education debate as Green TD raises doubts
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
STEPHEN COLLINS and HARRY McGEEThe Dáil continues to debate the Government's controversial education cuts today after thousands of teachers and parents protested in Dublin last night.
A vote will be taken at noon on the Labour Party motion calling for the cuts to be reversed, a vote the Government is expected to win comfortably with the support of its coalition partners the Greens.
Political pressure on the Government has eased ahead of the vote but it emerged last night that a Green Party TD has raised doubts about the long-term survival of the coalition.
Dublin Mid West TD Paul Gogarty confirmed he wrote an e-mail saying his party "may eventually have to pull out of Government", but said the comment was made as part of a private correspondence and was taken out of context.
Dr Peter Duffy, a physics lecturer in UCD and also a member of the board of management of Moyle Park College in Clondalkin, had e-mailed Mr Gogarty about the Greens' position in the Dáil debate on education.
In one of the e-mails, Mr Gogarty wrote: "We may eventually have to pull out of Government on this or combined issues but it's not going to happen until we have exhausted all avenues. I will just have to take the flak and put up with it for now."
Mr Gogarty said last night the e-mails were part of a discussion on the education cutbacks. "I said that we may eventually have to pull out of Government. I was just acknowledging that possibility. I was not saying it was a definite possibility or it was our intention.
"I feel it was inappropriate for that private correspondence with a member of a school board of management to be leaked in that manner," said Mr Gogarty.
The party's spokesman in Government said that Mr Gogarty's comment were entirely consistent with his own statement and that of party leader John Gormley that the Green Party is in Government for the long haul. Talk of anything else is purely hypothetical," he said.
Despite the large demonstration outside the gates of Leinster House last night the political temperature dropped as it became clear that the Government had got over the scare caused by the defection of two TDs last week and would easily survive the vote today.
The Government has tabled an amendment to the Labour motion noting the necessity to stabilise the public finances through "difficult expenditure decisions" to ensure that public services, including education, can be sustained and improved in the long run.
Green Party TDs had insisted over the past few days that they would have an input into the Government amendment but they came under strong attack from Opposition TDs who claimed that they had failed to have any impact on the wording.
Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe last night accused the Opposition of whipping up "hysteria" and said they were being dishonest with the Irish people.
"Much drama and quite frankly, hysteria, has been whipped up about protecting our children's future and the impact, in particular, of increases in class size," he said. "I'm from Cork, a county that knows a thing or two about hurling. Jack Lynch was a great hurler. But Ruairí Quinn, who this morning refused to say where he'd make the savings, is the most skilful hurler on the ditch I've ever encountered," said Mr O'Keeffe.
Government 'broke schools agreement'
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
Thursday October 30 2008
A SENIOR Church of Ireland bishop has accused the Government of unlawfully breaking a 40-year agreement with Protestant second-level schools over its Budget decision to withdraw support services grants mid-year.
The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Ken Good, levelled this serious legal breach against the Government in his annual address to his diocesan synod in Derry yesterday, when he warned of difficulties that this decision would create for volunteers serving on school boards.
"This action is, in effect, in contravention of an agreement with the Government in 1968, under which these schools were classified as within the free scheme, even though they charge fees to cover boarding costs which arise because of the dispersed nature of the Protestant population throughout the Republic", Bishop Good said in his address.
"Throughout the Protestant community in the Republic, there is much concern about the decision in the Budget to withdraw, mid-year, support services grants to many second-level schools under Protestant management."
Bishop Good added that schools in all sectors were managed by dedicated and committed Boards of Management who gave their time and expertise freely and voluntarily.
But he went on to warn the Government that this high level of commitment, which was an invaluable resource at the disposal of local communities and of the State, must not be taken for granted.
- John Cooney
Teachers told pay freeze could save 2,000 jobs
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
By Aine KerrThursday October 30 2008
FINE Gael last night reiterated its controversial proposal to freeze the salaries of teachers earning over €50,000 before the mass gathering of protesting teachers.
The party's education spokesman Brian Hayes, who has previously argued in the Dail that €128m could be saved by freezing next September's 3.5pc pay increase, last night lived up to his pledge to outline the proposal to those it would directly affect.
"We are all in difficult times. We know the difficult choices that have to be made. We have suggested a difficult, painful thing to the public service in terms of people over €50,000 and I know it is difficult and painful," he said.
"But I will say this, I will not stand back and allow 2,000 teachers face redundancies next year. I won't stand for it".
His controversial call for a pay freeze, which would divert attention from other key education areas and ensure that class sizes could be maintained, received applause and cheers.
However, a small number of teachers chanted "No pay cuts" for the remainder of Mr Hayes' speech. The Fine Gael spokesman also rejected the claim by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, that unions were "scaremongering", describing it as an "insidious comment".
Problem
"The teacher unions of this country are not part of the problem. It's Fianna Fail. They are the problem," he said.
The education spokesman has previously argued it is the responsibility of the opposition to provide alternative solutions and identify where other savings can be made so that supervision, language teachers and class sizes aren't touched.
- Aine Kerr
Greens fail to show for education cuts debate
- Published: 30 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
By Senan Molony Political CorrespondentThursday October 30 2008
THE Green Party failed to attend last night's Dail debate on an Opposition motion condemning the 32 cuts in the Department of Education's budget.
"This is the Greens' Stalingrad. They will never come back from this," said Fine Gael spokesman on Education, Brian Hayes.
One thousand schools would lose teachers next year as a result of the cuts, he told Minister Batt O'Keeffe, before adding, "and you stand indicted for that''.
But the minister accused the Opposition of peddling "outlandish claims" about the cuts, and insisted they were engaged in scaremongering over the past two weeks about the claimed impact on children.
Defending the need to make savings, he pointed to the world economic crisis, asking: "Are we to pretend that somehow we in Ireland can carry on regardless?"
Begged
Former Labour leader Ruairi Quinn begged the minister not to use the future of the country's children to copper-fasten what he called a botched Budget, but Mr O'Keeffe said Mr Quinn had refused on radio to say where else the money might be found.
"He is the most skillful hurler on the ditch I ever encountered," the minister said.
Speaking to her party's private members motion, Labour's Liz McManus said parents and teachers were standing in the cold night to defend children under attack -- when the Budget had claimed to be intended to protect the most vulnerable.
The withdrawal of English language support meant foreign children would find themselves lost, she added.
She quoted from letters received, including from one school with a 41-year-old boiler that had been shut down on health and safety grounds, leaving it with no heat.
"These cutbacks are shortsighted, unfair and unworkable," Ms McManus declared.
But Mr O'Keeffe said spending could not be allowed to spiral upwards as if nothing had changed. The debate will end today with a vote being called on a Government counter motion to the issue.
- Senan Molony Political Correspondent
