Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

With the indulgence of the Cathaoirleach, I will give a more personal view and analysis which I hope will none the less be consistent with the position of the Government and the Department of Education and Science. Historically, the State has treated favourably Protestant schools and pupils of those schools. It has allowed small schools to continue in existence that might not otherwise have been allowed to do so.

I interpret the equality provisions in the Constitution to be not inconsistent with positive discrimination. A global understanding of equality is that, in order to establish it, positive discrimination may be necessary in certain circumstances. That may have been the case in the past and may still be the case in some, but not all, instances. The Government is faced with severe financial constraints the consequences of which are bearing down on everybody, with complaints from almost every sector.

I was a member of the board of a Protestant secondary school in Dublin city for almost 20 years. Shortly before departing last year, I inquired about the number of block grant pupils among the school population of 630 and was told it was in single figures. However, in other areas, including Senator Buttimer's county, the proportion may be 30% or 40% and, in one or two instances, even higher. The case can be made that the cutbacks announced last October bear more heavily on such schools than on those with no substantial disadvantaged intake. The Taoiseach, the Minister and his departmental officials have made it clear in discussions that they are prepared to consider targeted assistance to schools most in need.

Based on the personal experience I have cited, I am not overly sympathetic to an undifferentiated case which does not incorporate recognition of the differing situations of schools. On the question of why this change is being instituted now, the answer may well be that the composition of these schools has evolved. What was equitable and correct 40 years ago, given the composition of the schools in question, may not necessarily be so to the same extent today. I personally regret that a type of religious emotional charge, which sometimes arises in controversies of this type, such as that relating to Tallaght hospital, has entered the debate. I am certain there is no ill will on the part of the Government towards Protestant schools. The only fault I have found in this regard in more than 30 years of public administration is that officialdom, sometimes even new Ministers, may not initially be aware of the different arrangements that have been in place since the late 1960s and the rationale behind them.

I hope a resolution can be found to this problem in the context of next year's budget. It is not in the public interest that this type of public stand-off, which does not offer a sufficiently differentiated and nuanced representation of the nature of the problem, should continue.