Batt faces difficult Budget test

TEACHERS PET: They are working long days (and nights) in the Department of Education these days as preparations for next week's Budget intensify.

As a relatively new minister, Batt O'Keeffe is hugely dependent on his accomplished secretary general, Brigid McManus, for advice.

McManus is a former assistant secretary in the Department of Finance and understands, better than most, the Merrion Street mindset.

For Batt, this Budget could define his time in Education.

Will he be the first education minister in two decades to take a "slash and burn" approach to frontline services in schools and colleges?

Or will he manage to protect the education sector, despite the economic storm?

Here's a prediction.

The primary education will emerge relatively unscathed from the Budget. There will be few cuts in frontline services, although the Government's commitment to cut class size will be "parked''.

Second level could also be saved from any cuts in frontline services. And there will be no cuts in hugely sensitive areas such as special-needs provision.

So who will bear the brunt? Basically, all of those various education quangos can expect severe cutbacks or even amalgamation with like-minded bodies.

And some statutory groups, such as Anne Looney's National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) could be in the firing line with severe spending cuts.

There will also be more bad news for the third-level sector. Last week's signal of a "pause" in payments under the Strategic Innovation Fund for third-level colleges is a portent of what's to come.

Batt, like Noel Dempsey, does not have a natural affinity with what he sees as the gilded birds at third level, so it can expect more cutbacks.

The one bright spark for Batt could be the school building programme. Labour's economic recovery package highlighted the positive effects of continued investment in school buildings for local communities - and for the construction sector.

Batt is pushing hard to ensure his Cabinet colleagues share this vision.

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This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times