Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Is it not fair to say that the Minister is on a direct collision course with the Protestant faith in this country and that his handling of this issue has been utterly insensitive to Protestant schools and the ethos provided in those schools? When the then Minister for Education, Donogh O'Malley, introduced free post-primary education in the 1960s he did a deal with them. The Minister is breaking that deal and is doing so in the most insensitive way. He is doing it in a way that does not bring people with him and that loses confidence in his position as Minister for Education and Science. The Minister needs to deal with this issue once and for all. He has been putting canards into the public domain that in some way there is legal advice that he had to act upon this. For 40 years their situation was protected within Irish education. Since the budget of last year the Minister is undermining that. He is undermining their confidence in the Government's position in terms of denominational education and the rights of those 21 schools.

Schools will go to the wall, particularly Protestant schools in rural parts of the country unless he shows some flexibility and meets people half way. To date the misinformation he has put out first, that moneys existed in budgets that were not spent and, second, in respect of legal opinion that had never been sought in the past 40 years has resulted in a terrible loss of faith in his position as Minister for Education and Science among the minority community.

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