Quinn admits mistake in plan to cut schools staff

EDUCATION minister Ruairi Quinn has admitted making mistakes in his plan to reduce staff numbers in disadvantaged schools, but warned he would only be able to soften the blow by making cuts elsewhere.

Mr Quinn said he accepted that announcing plans in the budget to cut 428 teachers and then rowing back in the face of back bench anger was “not the best way” to handle his department.

“I’m out of practice,” said Mr Quinn who last held a ministerial office 14 years before returning to a cabinet position last year.

“We make mistakes. We get things wrong, all of us, and the first thing to do is to put our hand up and say, yes, let’s look that again. That’s what we are doing.”

Mr Quinn has asked his department to carry out a review of the funding and supports available to schools in disadvantaged areas within the next four weeks.

Around 860 of the country’s 3,900 schools qualify for extra staff under the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme.

Three separate reports commissioned by the department and published yesterday, show the programme has had mixed results but has made some important improvements in reading, maths and attendance levels and is considered worth continuing with.

The minister said it was never intended for DEIS supports to be reduced but that he was looking to remove extra staff that had been allocated under earlier programmes and had remained in place despite the additional DEIS resources.

He said the plan to remove 428 teachers was no longer in place, but cuts would have to be made elsewhere as a result. He said there may be scope to make savings at 600 rural primary schools that had 50 or fewer pupils but still retained individual principals and boards of management.

The Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools said its members were already being hit by guidance counsellor cuts and could not take any more.

Teachers Union of Ireland general secretary John MacGabhann said: “If, as is suggested, money has to be found elsewhere within the education budget, it cannot be at the expense of those non-DEIS, non-fee paying schools already targeted for swingeing cuts on numerous occasions in recent years and now struggling to provide a basic frontline service to students.”