Halligan fell from ‘own high standards’ on workers’ rights - Bruton

Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan has "fallen from his own high standards" on the issue of workers' rights, Minister for Education Richard Bruton said on Monday .

Last week the Workplace Relations Commission found a woman had been discriminated against by Mr Halligan during a job interview when he asked if she was married and had children .

The Waterford TD is the Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Education and Skills

Speaking on Monday, Mr Bruton said Mr Halligan “has represented workers rights issues in my experience very ably, but he’s fallen from his own high standards in that respect, and he’s acknowledged that. And I think we have to be able in politics to accept people make mistakes and make amends and move on”.

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Mr Halligan has apologised for the remarks and said he will pay the €7,500 compensation awarded to the individual himself.

Mr Bruton said he did not believe Mr Halligan’s position as a junior minister should be called into question over his proposed diplomatic mission to North Korea with his Independent Alliance colleagues Minister for Transport Shane Ross and Minister of State Finian McGrath. The proposed trip has since been cancelled.

“North Korea is not a country with which we should be seeking to develop relations, it is a very despotic regime, it has a really bad human rights record, it is actively pursuing threats to its neighbouring country South Korea, and I think the idea was a mistaken idea,” Mr Bruton said.

“I think it was a mistake, but this is not an issue on which a minister should be asked to resign or anything like that” he said.

Schools

Mr Bruton was speaking at St Vincent’s National Girls Primary School in north inner city Dublin, where he announced €1.8 million in funding for a host of new pilot education projects that will be trialled in 35 schools.

The ‘School Excellence Fund’ will provide funding for a set of learning projects that will be introduced in recognised disadvantaged (Deis) schools. The various projects include working with a pre-school and a primary school in an area to improve the transition of how subjects such as maths or languages are taught between the schools.

Other projects will include looking at improving students’ computer skills, problem solving abilities, and language proficiency.

In total ten “clusters” of schools will receive funding; in Dublin’s north inner city, Balbriggan, Inchicore, Enniscorthy in Co Wexford, Rathangan in Co Kildare, Athlone, Cork city, Clonmel in Co Tipperary, Limerick city and Easky in Co Sligo.

Each cluster will include three or four schools, and at least one school in the group is required to be a designated Deis school. Pilot programmes that are successful will be considered for a wider rollout to other schools by the department.

“We want to give schools the opportunity to find out not just what works, but what works best,” Mr Bruton said.

“The solutions aren’t often going to be found in Malborough Street (Department of Education offices), often the solutions for a school will be found in a local area with the local leaders, the teachers and principals, and others who are playing a role in the school designing new approaches,” he said.