MINISTER FOR Communications Pat Rabbitte led a delegation of TDs who asked Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to reverse planned cutbacks to some of the country’s most disadvantaged schools.
It is highly unusual for a senior Government Minister to become involved to such a degree in efforts to reverse a decision made by a Cabinet colleague. Mr Rabbitte and Mr Quinn are both Labour ministers in Government.
A number of backbench TDs in the party had expressed unease at the Budget-day decision to reduce funding for schools which are part of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (Deis) initiative.
The initiative supports funding for support services in such schools including resource teachers. Some of the schools affected by the cuts are in Mr Rabbitte’s constituency of Dublin South West. It is understood he expressed disquiet at the impact of the decision to parliamentary party colleagues last week.
The matter came to a head for Government backbench TDs in the past few days after Sinn Féin tabled a private members’ motion calling for the cuts to be reversed.
The draft reply of the Government to the motion – which is being debated over two days in the Dáil this week – was deeply unsatisfactory to the Labour backbench Deputies.
As a consequence, they arranged the meeting with Mr Quinn on Tuesday to urge him to reconsider the proposed cutbacks. The other members of the delegation led by Mr Rabbitte were Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central), who is a former principal of a school in a disadvantaged area, Ciara Conway (Waterford), and John Lyons (Dublin North West). Mr Rabbitte’s intervention in the matter is said to have been instrumental in prompting Mr Quinn to reconsider.
The Government subsequently presented a revised reply to the Sinn Féin motion yesterday that was acceptable to the delegation. Mr Quinn said posts would be held in reserve for Deis schools most affected by cutbacks.
He also said he had ordered a review of each school affected over a four-week period to examine staffing allocations for those schools which had been allotted extra posts.
Contacted last night, Mr Ó Riordáin said the decision was welcome and was part of a process that had had been going on for some time. He said he would wait until he saw the full decision “in black and white”.
Ms Conway said it was very welcome and said Sinn Féin did not have the franchise on what poverty looked like.
It is the second Budget-day decision on which there has been a U-turn because of resistance on the Government backbenches. Disability cut proposals were withdrawn after delegations from both Fine Gael and Labour met with Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.
However, one TD said last night that this might be the last reverse of policy, as “the Government cannot bend the knee to every grievance”.