The radical soul of the TUI

The pro-business OECD agenda for third-level education must be stopped, Paddy Healy, president of the TUI, tells John Downes

Sitting in the plush surrounds of a five-star Dublin hotel, it is difficult to believe Paddy Healy is a man who, as one acquaintance describes him, "wants to overthrow the State." But as president of the State's second-largest teaching union, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), Healy is arguably as well known for his personal political views as for his activities within the union.

A long-time left-wing activist, he is nevertheless eager to stress that his own political activism takes a back seat during his term of office as president.

It is a surprisingly diplomatic approach, doubtless learned from years of campaigning for his brother Seamus, an Independent TD in his home county of Tipperary, and one which seems far from the typical firebrand image of many political activists.

Healy stands at the head of a union that occupies a somewhat unique position in the Irish educational landscape, in that it serves both second-level and third-level teachers.

Known for its emphasis on inclusiveness and equality of opportunity, he says the TUI has little time for the pro-business approach espoused in the recent OECD report on the future of higher education in Ireland.

The TUI was largely able to predict what the report would contain, he says, as the OECD is above all concerned with economics, and would have consulted extensively with the Department of Finance before conducting its review.

"One thing we strongly agree with is that there is a need for a 'quantum leap' in funding. But a general thrust of the report was to move third level towards the private sector," he explains. "Insofar as it is the representation of a trend towards marketisation and privatisation of the education system, it is totally utilitarian and narrow."

Healy has made known his views on the report through his participation in the Education is not for Sale lobby group, which staged a protest outside the Dáil last week to highlight its concerns.

He says the 8 per cent increase in the education budget announced recently "at best halts a decline" in the education system, but does little to prove the Government is willing to engage in any major investment in the sector.

"Eight per cent is not a statement of intent to change the level of funding. If there had been something like a 15 to 20 per cent increase, that would be a declaration," he says. "It would be an indication of a change of policies. And it could be done by simply using the current budget surplus."

Yet Healy is somewhat more circumspect when it comes to outlining his views on the new Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin. While he draws interesting parallels between his own life and hers - both their mothers came from Clonmel, their fathers from Thurles, while the two left Tipperary for Dublin to pursue careers in education - he is clearly anxious not to rush to judgement on a first-term Minister.

Instead, he lays the blame for problems in the education sector on the Government. He cites the recent limit on numbers in the Post Leaving Certificate sector as an example of the Government's real priorities - and of the sincerity of its new "caring" approach to the electorate.

"There is a lot of rhetoric about caring. But at the end of the story, Brian Cowen announced