Educating Batt on his new portfolio

The new Minister for Education says his zeal and reforming abilities were key to his promotion, writesEducation Correspondent Niall Murray

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe has vowed on his first day of official duties to drive an agenda of reform across the education system and in his own department.

While he plans to take a number of weeks to familiarise himself with current issues and policies, Mr O’Keeffe said he already has certain policy ideas in mind and that he will be a decisive minister.

He plans first, however, to review the entire spending allocation within the Department of Education, starting with its huge capital budget for school buildings and other projects.

Many observers linked his promotion to his close friendship with the Taoiseach, and it is noteworthy that Mr O’Keeffe is the only senior Fianna Fáil minister not to have topped the poll in his or her constituency a year ago, with the exception of Justice Minister Dermot Ahern. Others suggest he has been rewarded for the enforced move from the constituency he had shared with Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin, when boundary changes moved his voter base of Ballincollig into Cork North West last year.

But the former minister of state for housing and urban development told the Irish Examiner, in his first newspaper interview, that his appointment was based on merit.

“I’ve worked closely with Brian Cowen over the years and we certainly are friends. But there’s one thing that Brian Cowen doesn’t do, he doesn’t promote on the basis of sentiment,” said Mr O’Keeffe.

“He’s had experience of me in the housing department in particular and I think he’s recognised my ability in terms of being a reforming and very zealous minister and he has rewarded that,” he said.

The minister said it would be unfair to start formulating policy until he has read through the entire scope of his portfolio, which commands a €9 billion budget this year.

“The first thing one has to establish is the capital funding programme and all the funding issues within the department. Until that’s under my belt, I certainly can’t plan in relation to either capital spending or current spending,” he said.

“I’m hoping that within a month or so I’ll have a good feel for all of the issues. I would see myself as being a pretty decisive minister who will certainly have a reform agenda in mind, right through the various areas of the job,” he said.

As he admits himself, it is one of the widest briefs of any minister, but there are a number of key areas in which he must assert his authority soon.

Among these is the school building programme, which has been criticised for its lack of transparency of late, particularly with the leap-frogging of schools with long-standing claims for upgraded facilities by buildings for new schools in areas of population growth.

At policy level, the Taoiseach’s clear enthusiasm for the Irish language might be the inspiration for a rethink of his predecessor Mary Hanafin’s stance on early total immersion in all-Irish schools. Her directive last summer that the teaching of English must begin by the second term of junior infants is to be the subject of a High Court challenge, but the new minister could possibly ease the tension by commissioning the research, which experts suggest is needed on the issue.

The variance between official advice and ministerial action in relation to curriculum change and Leaving Certificate reforms dogged Ms Hanafin at times, and it will be interesting to see what kind of relationship Mr O’Keeffe forms with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

And, of course, the relationship he fosters with teacher unions, school management bodies, and other stakeholders with whom most of his department’s negotiations take place will have a significant bearing on public perceptions. He has almost a year before facing the unions at their Easter conferences but their attitudes will be very much coloured by what Mr O’Keeffe can deliver for the education system in his 2009 spending allocation.

He acknowledged yesterday that his negotiation skills will be tested when he begins lobbying later in the summer for increased education funding from new Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who presents his first budget in December.

The Education Minister is, however, singing very much from the same hymn sheet as the Taoiseach, in terms of scrutinising the operation of public services.

“It behoves me as minster to examine areas within our department where we might have greater efficiencies and improve the overall operation of the department,” he said.

Clearly, Batt O’Keeffe’s intentions are to increase effectiveness and efficiency from pre-schools to universities within the constraints of tighter budgets. He will be judged, just as he has been by Brian Cowen, solely on merit.