School funds cut to pay for U-turn by Quinn

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has been accused of robbing Peter to pay Paul after cutting budgets for all primary schools in order to fund a U-turn on teacher cuts in the most disadvantaged schools.

He bowed to pressure for a U-turn on one of the most harshly criticised Budget 2012 cutbacks by allowing over 130 disadvantaged primary schools to keep 235 extra teachers.

However, every primary school in the country will have a smaller budget this year in order to fund the €2.8m reversal.