Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I tried this morning to have the Dáil adjourned to have this matter discussed. While it was not agreed to do so, I appreciate the opportunity to raise it on the Adjournment. The budget measure cutting school services grants has the most serious implications not only for the children it will affect directly but for virtually all Protestant faith schools, some of which may have to close, and, more seriously, for the future of the Protestant community. I do not exaggerate in making that statement.

The support services grant withdrawn by the current Government was the direct result of a formal agreement between the former Minister for Education, Mr. Donogh O'Malley, and Church of Ireland bishops representing all Protestant faith schools. The agreement was made prior to the introduction of free education in the 1960s. This special grant was in recognition of the fact that the State could not provide appropriate education to Protestant faith children because such children were few in number and the Protestant community was dispersed. Existing schools needed to be boarding schools for the same reasons and could not participate in the free education scheme introduced by the then Minister. Until the most recent budget, this agreement had been honoured by successive Governments through the decades.

The agreement copper-fastened an understanding, dating back to the foundation of the State, that the new State would always respect and facilitate the education of the minority Protestant communities. For the Minister to refer to this agreement now as a mere anomaly is hurtful and insulting and does not reflect the provenance of the agreement nor the ongoing need for it.

The Minister may be of the view that this grant is somehow a subsidy to the children of the former landed gentry. Nothing could be further from the truth. The sum involved is small — a mere €2.8 million annually — and is administered by the secondary education committee on behalf of all Protestant faith schools. It is used exclusively to allow disadvantaged children attend a school with an ethos appropriate to their faith. As the majority of Protestant faith schools are fee-paying, in effect the grant is used to provide a subsidy to families unable to pay the higher fees inevitably associated with small schools and boarding schools. Most of them are boarding schools.

The implications of losing the grant are clear. Disadvantaged children will not be able to attend the school of their parents' choice and these schools will, in many cases, simply become untenable and ultimately have to close, with all the consequences that has for the long tradition of Protestantism on this island. Many of these schools have been in existence for hundreds of years. I am sure the Minister, although he is now in China, does not want to go down in history as the one who closed them.

Protestant faith schools are facing all of the same cuts as other schools as a result of the budget. On top of this they are being further penalised by the unilateral, arbitrary and utterly ill-conceived withdrawal of this longstanding grant. Given the history of our island and the recognition of that history and tradition as regards how schools and education have been funded and delivered since the foundation of the State, this move is high handed, insulting and does not reflect the wishes of either the majority or the minority.

I cannot believe the Minister, in referring to this grant as an "anomaly", had been briefed on either its provenance or purpose. I believe it might have been foisted on him by a Department in search of easy targets to cut. However, he now knows its history and I ask that this cut be reversed immediately. At €2.8 million it is really a paltry sum in the context of the overall budget and certainly the saving does not justify the offence and damage this will cause to the minority community.

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