O'Keeffe: I got my sums wrong on teaching cuts
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EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe has admitted he did his sums wrong on the scale of teacher job cuts this year.
The minister had consistently claimed that second-level schools would lose around 200 posts this September but he now says the figure is actually 509.
Teacher unions insist the true number is even higher because of the way the minister did his maths.
As schools settle back for the new term, the minister revealed that, at second-level, the allocation of teachers to the end of August 2009 is down 509 posts compared with the same time a year ago. "This indicates that the final net position will be greater than originally estimated," said Mr O'Keeffe.
Last November, Mr O'Keeffe had said: "Let me reiterate again, my budget is based on paying only 200 fewer primary teachers in September 2009 than are currently being paid and the same at post-primary level."
Admission
The minister's latest admission has sparked a tetchy new war of words. Fine Gael education spokesperson Brian Hayes accused Mr O'Keeffe of "misleading" the Dail, teachers and parents with his original claims.
But the minister retorted that Mr Hayes was being "typically disingenuous and populist".
"This is another in a long line of 'take-no-decision-that-will-annoy-anyone-anywhere-type' statements from the prolific Fine Gael TD," he said.
The cuts arise from a budget decision last autumn to change the basis on which teachers are allocated to schools.
At the time, the minister claimed that 200 jobs would go at primary level, and about another 200 at second level.
On the plus side, the minister's calculations allowed for new posts created this year to cope with growing school enrolments.
The figures were disputed by the unions who said if the way teachers were allocated to schools had not changed in the budget, there would be 1,000 extra teachers each at primary and post-primary level this September.
In his latest statement, Mr O'Keeffe sticks close to his original estimate of job cuts at primary level, putting it at 200 to 300.
However, at second level, he now puts the figure at 509, compared with 240 last year. The allocation of teachers to schools is still being finalised, but the minister said he did not think the final position would be significantly different.
Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) general secretary Peter McMenamin said: "Once again this highlights that considerably more teaching posts will be lost at second level than the Department of Education and Science has claimed on several occasions."
Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) general secretary John White said the situation remained that if the budget cutbacks had not been introduced, there would be close to a 1,000 more second-level teachers in the system.
Mr Hayes accused the minister of "being disingenuous the entire time".
But Mr O'Keeffe said his approach to this issue has been open and transparent from the start. "I've always acknowledged that disimproving the pupil-teacher ratio impacts frontline services and I've published interim information on my department's website," he said.
"Deputy Hayes recently had a moment of clarity when he said education couldn't realistically be sheltered from savings measures -- but I've yet to see his proposals in this area."
- Katherine Donnelly
