Opposition hits out at schools shutdown u-turn

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe was tonight accused of a humiliating u-turn after ordering a nationwide school closure only to reverse it on the first day of the shutdown.

Many of the country’s 4,000 primary and secondary schools were making plans to reopen tomorrow after forecast snow did not fall and an unexpected thaw slowly took hold.

Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes claimed the minister had been forced into an embarrassing climbdown.

“The reality on the ground is that schools have the capacity to re-open,” Mr Hayes said.

“The minister’s handling of this issue has been less than sure-footed and he snookered himself by taking a very inflexible position on this issue.

“This incident shows that on the rare occasion that anyone in the Government actually makes a decision, they can’t even be trusted to make the right one.”

The Government claims 70-80%of schools were already closed last Friday when up to 15cm (six inches) of weekend snow was forecast.

And the minister defended his decisions, hitting back accusing his opposition number of “disingenuous populism”.

“Let me make it very simple for Brian Hayes – the heavy snowfall forecast on Friday by Met Éireann has not materialised and temperatures are unexpectedly rising so it makes sense to review the decision now and allow schools to reopen,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

The minister added: “Deputy Hayes likes to jump on the populist bandwagon now but when decisive calls were needed last week he was nowhere to be seen.

“He is not so much the weatherman as the ’Nowhere Man’.”

Friday’s decision had been supported by the Irish Primary Principals Network, Irish National Teachers Organisation and business chiefs.

But the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA), which oversees the running of about 3,000 primary schools, wrote to the minister criticising the closure order and questioning whether the Department had authority to order it.

Eileen Flynn, CPSMA general secretary, said blanket closures were not the best way to operate.

“We know where the minister was coming from but we also would like it to be known that had he consulted with us it might have been different,” she said.

Ms Flynn also said the emergency was not caused by Arctic weather but by the lack of access to workplaces.

Labour TDs also hit out at the minister’s decisions.

Cork TD Sean Sherlock said there would be further confusion as it was unclear if Bus Eireann can provide school transport in rural areas.

“School boards of management have traditionally been responsible at a local level for deciding on matters such as school closures and health and safety issues,” Mr Sherlock said.

“This system has worked perfectly well, and even last week, schools that could not open, remained closed, while many others opened with little or no problem.

“Quite why Batt O’Keeffe had to meddle with this arrangement is beyond me.”

But the minister’s decisions were welcomed in some quarters.

Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, praised Mr O’Keeffe’s decisions today and on Friday.

“I commend the minister for taking a lead in this matter on health and safety grounds last week, but it is also prudent for local management to re-assume their statutory responsibilities,” Mr Moriarty said.

“A universal decision is no longer relevant.”