Healy-Rae support in doubt over class sizes

INDEPENDENT TD Jackie Healy-Rae has refused to rule out dropping his support for the Government unless his concerns on the growing pupil-teacher ratio in south Kerry schools are addressed by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe next week.

With the Government coming under pressure from all sides to row back some of its heavy budget cutbacks, Mr Healy-Rae said he would be meeting Mr O’Keeffe to raise specific concerns about the expected fall in teacher numbers in local schools.

While falling short of stating that his long-standing support for the Government was on the line over the issue, the Kerry South TD refused to rule out such a course of action and said he hoped the minister would not let him down in tackling these “extremely desperate” cases.