Batt's baptism of fire fails to thaw frosty reception
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AT teachers' conferences from Donegal to Kerry to Cork, it's all about the 3 Rs this week -- Recession, Recession, Recession. And the white-haired, bespectacled chap plonked firmly on the naughty step is Batt 'Buachaill Dána' O'Keeffe.
Not for this Education Minister the glory tours of his predecessors, Noel Dempsey and Mary Hanafin, who were able to dip into the bulging government war chest and graciously dispense handouts to keep revolting delegates sweet at conference time.
As the new kid on the chopping-block, Batt's baptism of fire was more of a post-Easter stations of the cross, with angry mobs of acronyms -- INTO, ASTI and TUI -- waiting to crucify him over pension levies, education cuts, the abolition of special needs classes and pay freezes.
Batt's first scheduled stoning was at the primary teachers' union conference in Letterkenny yesterday morning, and he flew in under cover of darkness on Monday night.
In more convivial times, education ministers would spend the night before the conference socialising with the muinteoiri. But perhaps sensing that his presence in a bar full of beered-up tetchy teachers might end up with someone getting six of the best, Batt opted for a quiet meal in a local restaurant.
But as he entered the INTO conference just after 9am, it was clear that the minister himself was on the menu. He was greeted with a frosty silence. About 40 or 50 teachers staged a walkout, and there were a few jeers at some of his pronouncements but it was the INTO's general secretary, John Carr, who gave him a vigorous, if somewhat colourful, dressing down.
"Pretending that class sizes in Ireland have moved towards OECD and EU averages is straight out of the Ryanair school of spin," he declared. "Like Michael O'Leary's airports, Ireland's class sizes are miles away from where they should be."
John also gave Batt a D-minus for his sums, dismissing the minister's assertion that only 200 jobs will be lost through cuts. "That's Sean FitzPatrick-style accounting on the eve of an Anglo Irish agm," he sniffed. "And lest there be any misunderstanding, that remark is confined to the mathematics used and not to personal probity. Perhaps you learned your mathematics in an over-crowded class?" he added snidely.
The wheels may be coming off the country, but the door remained attached to Batt's whirlybird as he landed in Kerry for his second stoning of the day.
On the way into the Malton Hotel, Batt pulled on his best hairshirt as he talked about the tough times ahead. "All of us must grin and bear this," he declared.
Inside the conference hall, the delegates had been debating the education cuts and working themselves into a lather of righteous indignation. "I hope we will sit on our hands and give him a very cold draught when he comes," scolded one Dublin teacher, while another fulminated against a cabinet consisting of "two Brians, three Hail Marys and a toxic Batt".
Batt was, once again, greeted with stony silence, apart from polite applause from the front two rows of guests -- including the Greens' Dan Boyle. About 30 teachers staged a walkout as Batt began to deliver a downbeat speech about how "taxes are required and I know they're not easy to accept". But some semblance of self-preservation prevented him from suggesting that his audience "grin and bear it" -- otherwise the main dish at that evening's banquet may well have been a ministerial head on a plate.
By contrast the address by the ASTI's president, Pat Hurley -- who is no oratorical Obama -- was rewarded with 24 rounds of applause and a prolonged standing ovation at the end. Pat pointed out that OECD research "consistently found that Ireland is at the bottom of the league when it comes to the amount Ireland invests in its second-level schools. And it's shame on any government", he said to loud applause.
Outside the hall afterwards, Batt looked visibly relieved. Two down, and one more -- the TUI congress in Cork today -- to go. There had been jeers, silence, some threatening noises about strike action -- but no rotten fruit or brickbats flung his way. "I brought a second suit with me today, just in case," he confided.
And then like a Batt out of hell he was gone.
