Proposal to restrict scale of Junior Cert considered as part of cutbacks

Restricting the Junior Certificate examination to just Irish, English and maths, making some personnel in institutes of technology compulsorily redundant and abolishing the free drug scheme for patients with long-term illness were among options considered by the then government in 2010.

The budget introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Green administration in late 2010 was arguably the toughest in the history of the State, with spending reductions of about €6 billion included as part of the package.

Newly released cabinet papers reveal the struggles between the Department of Finance and big spending departments such as health, education and social welfare to secure cuts.

The papers show then minister for finance Brian Lenihan wanted an across-the-board cut of 5 per cent in all social welfare rates to generate savings of €1 billion.

These proposals involved a €14 a month cut in child benefit payments and reductions of €10 or €11 a week in pensions and other payments.

Ultimately, the cabinet at the time decided to introduce social welfare rate cuts of 4 per cent, while pensioners were spared any reductions.

The Department of Finance originally wanted to see education cuts of €390 million, although this was later scaled back to €200 million.

A memo in October 2010 said that among the options put forward by the Department of Education were abolishing the school transport scheme – at an annual saving of nearly €120 million – and replacing it with a system of grants for families covered by medical cards or those with special educational needs.

The Department of Finance forecast that such a move would meet very strong opposition and probable constitutional challenges. It also warned that it could lead to 5,000 redundancies among bus drivers and school transport escorts.

The Department of Finance said limiting the Junior Cert to the three core subjects, as proposed by the Department of Education, so that students still benefited from experiencing a formal State examination in advance of the Leaving Cert while reducing costs, was worthy of consideration.

The Department of Finance also said a number of other options could be supported by the Department of Education but they would most likely have to be implemented across the public service or require specific legislation.

These included a new 10 per cent lower pay scale for new entrants and a redundancy scheme – with provision for compulsory redundancies if insufficient volunteers emerged – in the country’s various institutes of technology.

“There are at least 100 surplus lecturers due to fall-offs in apprenticeships.”

The Department of Finance proposed that the preschool care and education system, known as ECCE, should be abolished completely to save €100 million.

In urging the abolition of the long-term illness scheme, the Department of Finance said there was no clear rationale why some people with certain qualifying conditions should pay nothing towards their medicine costs regardless of means, while others had to pay some of the bills themselves under the drug payments scheme or else had to undergo means tests to qualify for medical cards.