Government cutbacks – Education hardest hit despite spin

When Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced financial cuts before the Dáil recessed, they said all departments would have to cut their payrolls by 3%, with the exception of Health and Education.

Since then, however, some of the most savage cuts have been in those two departments.

The Government’s professed determination to exempt Health and Education from the knife has been denounced by Brian Hayes, Fine Gael’s spokesman on education, as “spin and lies”. The €27 million grant for repairs and equipment at the country’s 3,300 primary schools has been postponed until next year, which is going to hurt already cash-strapped schools.