TUI CONFERENCE:MINISTER FOR Education Batt O'Keeffe yesterday appealed to teacher unions to co-operate with him as he expressed hope that the unions would not resort to industrial action next September when Government cutbacks hit the education sector.
“I notice that what the unions have said is that they have an option from their members to look at strike action – I would hope that, looking and realising how difficult a situation is, we would all be sensible,” he said.
“Does taking teachers out of a classroom away from children, does that bring an end to the crisis any quicker – does disruption of the schools on a daily basis make a difference to what we want to achieve in the long run?”
A member of the TUI when he worked at Cork Institute of Technology, Mr O’Keeffe made his appeal after receiving a frosty reception from teachers and lecturers at the TUI annual conference at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork yesterday.
Up to 50 of the 450 or so delegates present walked out in protest as he begin to deliver his address, while others held up placards denouncing the education cutbacks and many shouted “shame, shame” as he began to deliver his address.
Mr O’Keeffe’s 10-minute long speech was greeted in the main with stony silence, interrupted by some occasional heckling when he referred to the need for fairness and ironic laughter when he said that he could understand how difficult teachers were finding the cutbacks.
Displaying a steely-faced stoicism as he listened to TUI president Don Ryan strongly attack his performance as Minister to several standing ovations from delegates, Mr O’Keeffe later said that he was not surprised by the reception he received, but insisted that the cutbacks were needed.
Mr O’Keeffe said that he would “love to be able” to provide all that Mr Ryan and the TUI were seeking, but unions consistently failed to factor in the cost of such proposals and if he were to accede to their demands, the economy would end up in an even worse state.
“Of course, teachers will deride me for saying it’s a difficult time but at the end of the day we’re gone beyond party politics with our country going down the drain – we have to stand up and we have to be counted and we have to be responsible for the future generations.”
Mr O’Keeffe reiterated that the cut in the number of teaching posts would be about 400, contrary to claims being made by the teacher unions.
He also challenged them over their denunciation of the abolition of the book funding scheme. He said the teacher allocations for next year involved a loss of 254 posts at primary level, but that was before any appeals or allocations in developing areas were considered and he expected the final figure to be about 200, with the same number of posts at second level.
He also pointed out that individual schools could use their share of the additional €20 million in capitation fees being paid next year to target whatever areas they wanted to, including allocating it to providing free books for students unable to afford textbooks.
In his address, Mr O’Keeffe defended the income levy as a fair and equitable means of tackling the shortfall in the public finances, pointing out that the top 1 per cent of income earners would contribute some 25 per cent of the revenue generated by the levy.
He emphasised the importance of retraining and upskilling to maximise people’s job opportunities and pointed out that nearly 7,000 additional places would be created in the higher and further education sectors through activation measures announced in last week’s Budget.
Some 1,500 new places are also being provided in third-level institutions for people who are unemployed or on short-time working which will allow them pursue certificate or degree programmes on a part time basis, he said.