MINISTER FOR Education Batt O'Keeffe is refusing to row back on education cutbacks despite a round of meetings this week with teaching unions, school managers and the churches.
The Minister met the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and the Church of Ireland bishops yesterday. This was the latest in a series of meetings with education partners on the Budget.
During each meeting, the Minister has outlined the economic crisis facing the State, and acknowledged the impact of funding cuts in schools.
However, he has urged each interest group to assist the Government as it seeks to address the economic crisis.
The Protestant schools are particularly angry about the withdrawal of support service grants from schools.
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, The Right Rev John Neill, who led yesterday's delegation, has accused the Minister of striking "directly at the disadvantaged" by removing the block grant and ancillary funding to Protestant schools.
Since 1966, the Government has provided these supports to Protestant schools, a recognition that "free schooling" was not always available to Protestant children.
Dr Neill said the discussions were useful and part of an ongoing process. Attention, he said, had focused on the status of the Protestant block grant, which allowed schools to assist the lower paid and others who wished to avail of Protestant schools.
Last week, Mr O'Keeffe told the Dáil the decision to withdraw the supports from Protestant schools would yield savings of €2.8 million per year.
He insisted he had protected the Protestant block grant.
He added: "With this grant protected, I can see no justification for treating the Protestant fee-charging schools in a special way, particularly given that Catholic fee-charging schools have not been in receipt of the grants . . . at all."
The INTO said it outlined its grave concerns about the impact of the Budget cutbacks on primary education, and sought their reversal.
The INTO said it "fully acknowledged" current national economic difficulties and that some harsh decisions would have to be made.
But the union told the Minister that any corrective measures had to be fair and equitable and that the Budget went wrong because it lacked fairness and equity, targeting as it did the old, the lower paid and children.
The union described the class-size increases as "reprehensible" and said that TDs telling schools they would sort out staffing problems in individual schools was not helpful.
INTO general secretary John Carr said the union's campaign against the cutbacks would continue. He said the union had indicated to the Minister that it was prepared to be constructive in relation to finding a solution through partnership. "But," he said, "partnership is a two-way street".
An INTO protest meeting will be held in Tullamore on Saturday, followed by protests in Cork and Donegal before a national protest in Dublin on December 6th.