Batt takes over in Education

TEACHER'S PET:THE new Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe will spend most of the next month being briefed on his new portfolio. He spent much of last Thursday and Friday being "read into'' the job by Brigid McManus, the secretary general in Education.

O'Keeffe comes into the job with a fair wind behind him. Around Leinster House, all sides portray him as a decent, affable guy whose elevation to Cabinet was overdue. His first high-profile public outing should be at the start of the Leaving Cert exams early next month.

O'Keeffe's key task will be to boost spending for the sector - no easy task when the Exchequer returns are so disappointing. The challenge is all the greater because of the expected 100,000 increase in primary school numbers over the next few years. In other words, more money will be needed just to maintain existing services, never mind expand them.

And all the while, the powerful INTO will be waiting and watching.

O'Keeffe will be given time and space, but the demands for smaller classes, more special-needs provision, more for autism and more money for school buildings will not be easily repelled.

FORMER Education minister Mary Hanafin was the big loser in the Cabinet reshuffle, victim of what one might call a "triple whammy".

First, she was demoted to a less important portfolio.

Second, she has to contend with her constituency colleague (and keen rival) Barry Andrews at the Cabinet table.

And third, she has a new portfolio (Social, Community and Family Affairs) which is not always top of the agenda for her Dún Laoghaire constituents.

Hanafin has never been close to Brian Cowen and it is the tense personal relationship between the two that explains her demotion.

Hanafin was vulnerable to Cowen's whims because she has never established her own coterie of supporters within the Fianna Fáil back benches. So there were few there to defend her when the axe fell last Wednesday.

Hanafin can count herself very unlucky. She was more knowledgable and more articulate than most of her predecessors in Education. And her record compares well with the best. Hanafin also had a great team around her, including press office Ger Butler, policy advisor Avril Power and Ronnie Ryan, her private secretary.

But she never recovered fully from the class-size debacle and Mary O'Rourke's criticisms on autism. Brian Hayes' appointment as Fine Gael's combative education spokesman also inflicted damage.

Last week, Mary Hanafin was talking up her new portfolio on the airwaves - she has little choice. But her challenge now is to regroup and rebuild.