Quinn takes the plaudits after parents’ anger

Ruairi Quinn paraded out of Government Buildings flanked with Labour backbenchers to announce Cabinet approval to keep resource teaching for children with disabilities at current levels in the autumn.

But it was parents up and down the country whose anger and frustration at feeling the brunt of another cut to their children’s education that forced Labour TDs to bend the minister’s ear; or to contact party chairman Colm Keaveney, who raised his concerns in an emailed letter that the minister’s office had not received on Monday, more than three days after being sent.

Mr Quinn said yesterday that, on reflection, he might have reacted quicker. It was unease, he said, at a 12% rise in children qualifying for resource teaching hours that warranted Cabinet provision yesterday for extra funding to keep up with demand.