Key figures in Batt's team

TEACHER'S PET:He may be only 28, but already Batt O'Keefe's communications director Bernard Mallee is being spoken of as a future government press secretary.

Mallee, from Knock, Co Mayo, is the key figure in O'Keeffe's team. It is Mallee who has directed the combative approach which has become the hallmark of the Minister's regime.

His best moment came when O'Keeffe performed so smoothly on Prime Time as the fires raged about the Budget cutbacks. Guided by Mallee, the Minister's strategy has been to appeal over the heads of the teacher unions to ordinary punters.

There is a continuing focus in press statements on the economic downturn and the job losses. The implicit message? Teachers should stop whinging and be grateful for safe, secure employment.

Mallee also belives in fighting fire with fire. If Brian Hayes rolls out an abrasive statement, Mallee will respond in a similar cutting vein.

Mallee, who graduated with an MA in journalism from DCU, is a former Fianna Fáil press officer and a former director of public affairs at Bill O'Herlihy Communications.

He also has experience as a hack, working as a a political reporter in the Washington DC bureau of the St Louis Post-Dispatch and he did an internship with the New Statesman in London.

O'Keeffe's policy adviser Deirdre McDonnell has also been a key behind-the-scenes figure. The Minister could have brought in his own external expert, but instead chose McDonnell, a principal officer in the department.

McDonnell has held various posts in the department including in the Central Policy Unit and Office of the Secretary General.

At last weeks education protest, a seven year-old, obviously thinking the chants of the adults were too anodyne for the Minister came up with one of his own.

To his mothers horror he came out with:

I just want a smaller class

Stick your cutbacks . . .

"Shut up, Ben," his embarrassed mother shouted as the laughing child ducked to avoid the arm swinging in his direction.

This is the last Teachers' Pet of the year. Many thanks and Happy Christmas to all of you who dished the dirt in 2008. This column returns in January. teacherspet@irishtimes.com