Gormley not to seek removal of Gogarty as education committee chair

GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley will not seek the removal of Paul Gogarty as chairman of the Oireachtas education committee, following Mr Gogarty’s resignation as the party’s education spokesman yesterday.

Mr Gogarty said he was stepping down because a motion passed at the party’s conference at the weekend “undermines the position of education spokesperson”.

He said the decision to set up a group charged with achieving the Greens’ education commitments “creates a new layer of bureaucracy in the party”.

Opposition politicians argued that Mr Gogarty should now resign his position as Oireachtas education committee chairman, for which he earns €20,000 a year.

However, Green Senator Deirdre de Búrca, who spoke for the party on the issue yesterday, confirmed Mr Gormley would not act against Mr Gogarty.

“The issue of the chair of any committee is a matter for the Taoiseach. However, the issue has been raised with John Gormley as party leader and John is of the view that he has no intention of taking any action in relation to this,” she said.

“If it were a matter of competence he certainly would but most people are aware that Paul Gogarty is a very competent, very able chair of the education committee so there is no intention on the part of the party to take any action in this regard.”

Ms de Búrca said the parliamentary party regretted Mr Gogarty’s decision and had asked him not to resign as education spokesman, a position he has held since 2002.

The appointment of a replacement education spokesman would be discussed at the Green Party’s parliamentary party meeting tomorrow, she said.

Mr Gogarty yesterday acknowledged that his decision was taken against the wishes of the parliamentary party.

He said the motion passed at the party conference meant that the “role and autonomy” of the education spokesman would be different to that of other spokesmen.

The wording of the motion was: “That the Green Party convene a high-level reference group including representatives from all sections of the party including a Minister in order to devise a political strategy aimed at achieving our educational commitments as outlined in the programme for Government and preventing any further degradation of our education system.”

Mr Gogarty said: “Anyone who now takes this position will be part of a committee rather than an initiator and communicator of party policy on education issues.”

He said he was “outraged” about some recent education cutbacks.

“But I can still say, hand on heart, that without our influence they would have been much worse.

“I remain committed to working to reverse these cuts, albeit not as education spokesperson.”

The Oireachtas education committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the possible reintroduction of third-level fees.

Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes, a member of the committee, said it was hard to see how anybody except Mr Gogarty would benefit from him stepping down from an internal Green Party position while “continuing to pocket the extra 20 grand he receives as chair of the Oireachtas education committee”.

“It looks like Paul Gogarty just wants to keep the loot,” he said.

Labour education spokesman Ruairí Quinn, who is also a member of the committee, said Mr Gogarty’s resignation as Green Party education spokesman was a “fairly futile gesture”.