Poorest schoolchildren left out in the cold by the State

A SHIVER of reality spiked through classrooms as children taught they are all “cherished equally” by the Republic had a lesson in State hypocrisy.

The working poor just hold things together: getting up early to do draining jobs, paying their taxes and struggling on, knowing the route out of a similar life for their children is education.

Now that basic right is impeded as their children are left to learn in cold, dilapidated classrooms while money that should help them is siphoned off for the fee-paying elite.

Slashed maintenance grants for schools were meagre, but they kept things ticking over and saved us from the disgraceful sight of children wearing extra layers of clothing to get through the day in freezing classrooms where the boiler has packed-up and there is no money to fix it.

Yet, there is Exchequer money — €96m a year — to fund teaching and clerical staff in the top fee-paying schools. Arguably the three most exclusive private schools, Blackrock, Gonzaga and Belverdere, receive €7.85m a year between them. That is enough money to stop the incredibly vicious cuts to home help services for the vulnerable — but redirecting that money to schools at the bottom of the chain would do immense good.

Defenders of the Robin-Hood-in-reverse scheme of robbing the poor to give to the rich say that without State aid private schools would have to close, putting extra strain on mainstream ones.

Hmmmm, I suspect the grand facades of Blackrock and Gonzaga will somehow survive — I cannot imagine their pupils shivering in cold classrooms as a result.

Though it would be a shame to curtail some of the little extras — such as golf — enjoyed by fee-paying pupils, while their counterparts in the State system are treated in such a shabby way. This warped financial redistribution is unacceptable.

Education Minister Rúairí Quinn — who thought nothing of slashing hundreds of teaching posts in the most deprived schools last year — has set up a probe into the system, ahead of next week’s Budget, and if the Government decides to keep pumping €96m into private schools, while cutting child benefit for the poorest families, we will know officially that the world has gone mad and this Coalition’s pretence at social justice is a twisted Christmas fairytale.

That Joan Burton is even allowing talk of an automatic cut to child benefit is an admission she has failed in a key area as social protection minister.

There is a strong argument for withdrawing the payment from those earning above, say, €100,000 a year, but taking another tenner away from families already badly struggling to survive is just cruelty.

Ms Burton says that means-testing, or involving Revenue through the tax-code to ensure that the money available is targeted at those most in need, is not possible at the moment.

How strange, then, that in just a few months, the Revenue will be able to deduct property tax at source from the benefits of welfare recipients.

As usual, there is a Government will-and-a-way to overcome such problems — but only when it is the poor in their financial firing line.

But this so-called Republic does not just discriminate on class lines, but gender as well — as even the minister for justice has admitted.

The post-Savita Halappanavar debate on the X-Case judgement has been taken over by the most ludicrous imagery from the anti-choice side, with talk of Irish hospitals becoming “abortion mills”, and the imminent arrival of “abortion as a lifestyle choice”.

A lifestyle choice?

Yes, you can imagine the woman dealing with a crisis pregnancy musing: ‘What shall I do this afternoon? Shall I go and get that Marc Jacobs handbag, or shall I go and have that lovely abortion I’ve always dreamed of ... decisions, decisions?’

As Alan Shatter said, even after the X-Case is legislated for, women will remain second-class citizens who will not be able to request a termination when they have been the victim of rape, unless they are suicidal.

“When men in this country require medical treatment, there are no barriers to their obtaining it. In these particular areas, for example, there are barriers to women obtaining treatment and, in that sense, they are less equal as citizens in one particular area of our life,” Mr Shatter said in a surprising contribution.

It was unclear whether he was espousing a more liberal agenda, or using the blatant inequality to show Fine Gael’s hardcore, anti-X-Case ruling rump that they should be thankful things will only move marginally, allowing women just some of the most basic rights over their own bodies.

As Mr Shatter, who is also equalities minister, told the Dáil: “We are not even addressing — nor can we, under the current constitutional provision — issues which many outside the House believe should be addressed.

“Neither can we provide for the termination of a pregnancy where there is a foetal abnormality, which will, as a certainty, result in the birth of a baby unable to survive. I personally believe that this is an indefensible cruelty.

“It can truly be said that the right of pregnant women to have their health protected is, under our constitutional framework, a qualified right. This will remain the position. This is a republic in which we proclaim the equality of all our citizens, but the reality is that some citizens are more equal than others.”

Mr Shatter appears genuinely concerned about the situation, but, in acknowledging it, is admitting he is also ‘minister for injustice and inequality’.

And those are two words we will, unfortunately, associate closely with this Coalition in the aftermath of the Budget, if past performance is anything to be judged on.