Protestant school funding to be cut
Ahead of a meeting yesterday with representatives of the 31 fee-paying schools from which the €3.5 million support grant was withdrawn in the budget a year ago, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe told the Dáil on Tuesday that the Attorney General had given his officials this advice. He has been told it was wrong that Protestant schools were receiving €645 for every student compared with €345 in other schools.
The Committee for Management of Secondary Schools, which discussed the issue with Mr O’Keeffe yesterday, said children of poor Protestant families attend urban schools as much as those in rural areas.
“There is one Protestant school in south Dublin where 10% of students’ families are on social welfare and 40% get some grant support,” said parents’ representative Eleanor Petrie.
“The idea that the additional funding is for Protestant students is ridiculous, it’s available for any student who has to travel more than 15 miles to a school of their ethos. If a Catholic child living in a rural peninsula is that far from a school, the school can get the same grant.”
A spokesman for Mr O’Keeffe said Catholic fee-paying schools made representations to his department at the start of this decade, based on legal advice, seeking the same funding for their schools as that paid to Protestant schools.
Asked if the minister would make available the legal advice from the Attorney General about Protestant schools funding, he said: “The minister, in accordance with normal practice, isn’t in a position to release it. The practice of preserving legal privilege and confidentiality in legal advice given by the Attorney General and his office is longstanding.”
The case of the Protestant schools was backed yesterday by Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin who said he was surprised the constitutional difficulties had emerged so many years after the funding mechanisms were put in place.
In the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen denied claims by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny the move was designed to “get at” Protestant schools because the department had to settle a court case involving such schools last year.
Mr Kenny said the Taoiseach had to overrule the minister, and asked why the Attorney General was suddenly consulted on something that has been happening for 40 years.
