€500m a year less is being spent on universities and colleges, though there are more students, and nobody wants to foot the bill, says Niall Murray

Plans to impose water charges twice as costly as today’s rates were drawn up by the Fianna Fáil-led government months before the troika bailout, despite repeated claims that the system was only created to comply with EU demands.

The votes of fewer than 3,800 teachers have cast doubt over the most radical school reforms in decades.

IT is very disappointing that the country’s largest second-level teachers’ union, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has rejected proposals on junior cycle reform reached after long and difficult negotiations, negotiations marked by considerable compromise on both sides.

The new education minister has worked in the classroom, but will rely on lessons learned in the political arena, writes Education Correspondent Niall Murray

Efforts are being made by government departments to help students affected by the closure of a number private international colleges in Dublin.

Nearly €1m of taxpayers’ money was wasted on acquiring land in Co Cork for a fire station which was never built.

The salaries of all teachers in fee-paying schools were paid on the same basis as other second-level schools — one for every 18 pupils until September 2009.

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL was in Dublin last week, flogging a book, revisiting the past, and standing by an old pal.

WHO created the fee-charging schools? The State, not parents speeding up to the school gates in red Ferraris and not Protestants in wide-brimmed, black hats.

Ex-ministers and TDs who “abandoned” Fianna Fáil in the last election and chose not to contest seats, will not be allowed to run again under a motion passed at the ard fheis.

WE get the politicians we deserve.

A few things that need to be put to bed about the McAleese Report and the Taoiseach’s refusal to issue an apology to the women incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries.

Survivors of the Magdalene laundries have quickly rejected the Taoiseach's apology, and demanded a fuller and more frank admission from government and the religious orders involved.

TOMORROW’S Magdalene laundries’ report is the last chance the 1,000 or so survivors still alive have to get the public vindication they crave.

Only four out of 43 former government ministers have declined to accept an allowance, saving taxpayers over €250,000, new figures reveal.

A Government decision on student fees and how to fund higher education is to take at least another year as Education Minister Ruairi Quinn awaits more reports and reviews.

The late finance minister, Brian Lenihan, resisted pressure to accept a bailout until the final minute and hinted he did so because of pressure from the ECB.

Our nation’s leaders need to avoid putting all their educational eggs in one basket, writes education correspondent Niall Murray

A costly legal wrangle that erupted because Wexford County VEC queried a €691 expenses claim has been settled in the High Court.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has backed the new type of state-run primary school despite concerns about religious teaching.

Most students could repay a €10,000 college fees loan within 15 years of graduation if the Government decided to introduce such a scheme, according to University of Limerick research.

DETAILS of the planned €500,000 memorial to victims of institutional child abuse will be announced next summer more than three years after it was proposed.

WHAT a year.

LAST December an international survey reported a startling decline in the level of academic achievement by Irish teenagers.

SCHOOLS face planning nightmares trying to arrange important exam-related and other activities as there is no certainty over funding for substitution cover after Christmas.

MAJOR reforms of the Junior Certificate face opposition as a teachers’ union claims they can not be achieved while schools are suffering major cuts to staffing and other resources.

THE threat of increases in class sizes next year has prompted an angry response from teachers and opposition parties.

After a period of grace‚ frustration with the government is becoming evident‚ writes Political Editor Paul O’Brien

THE backers of a proposed €4.7 billion pharmaceutical project in Kerry have criticised comments made by a junior minister in relation to their negotiations with the IDA and other state agencies.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese and her husband, Senator Martin McAleese, led the mourners at Brian Lenihan’s removal last night.

CATHOLIC primary schools could have planned extensions delayed or cancelled if there is demand for other types of schools in an area, under policy recommendations to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.

THE concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) ensured the world was safe from nuclear war during the Cold War as each side knew that pushing the red button would trigger the same response from their opponents.

MORE than 1,200 retired teachers have been employed as substitutes in just six months despite repeated calls on schools to give the work to unemployed teachers.

‘Quiet rebellion of 2011 is only the first step in restoring fairness to the process’

IT’S nearing the final stretch in another gruelling run in a Cork South Central campaign for a candidate from Turner’s Cross.

THIS time around, three Fine Gael candidates will have their names near the top of the ballot paper and not many would bet against two of them taking seats in Leinster House on March 9.

“WE’RE going to end up paying for air the way the Greens are going,” was the doorstep response of one voter to a request from Cork North West Green Party candidate Mark Collins to consider him in the upcoming election.

THE inclusion of a Ballincollig- based candidate on the Fianna Fáil ticket in Cork North West will be a boost rather than a hindrance to Fine Gael, local FG election hopeful Derry Canty claims.