C of I education board secretary praises McGuinness

The secretary of the Church of Ireland Board of Education in the North, Canon Houston McKelvey, has paid tribute to Mr Martin McGuinness as Education Minister. "He is not a man I can do business with, but with whom I have already done business," he said.

His own journey and Mr McGuinness's had been "somewhat slightly different". But he had to say that the board had been treated extremely fairly, and had been given a courteous and considerate hearing by him.

The canon, who will be installed as Dean of Belfast next month, recently became the first British army reserve forces chaplain to receive the Queen's Volunteer Reserve medal.

He told the General Synod yesterday that the past year had been the most stimulating and most exciting since he became secretary to the board. This was due to the amount of political progress made at Stormont.

He praised the work of Mr Sean Farren (SDLP) as Minister of Further Education, Mr Danny Kennedy (UUP), chairman of the Assembly's Education Committee, and Mr Sammy Wilson (DUP) of the same committee.

If the Assembly fell, he said, he had no doubt whatsoever that the cause of education in Northern Ireland would be severely impaired. "We will return to the part-time ministers of direct rule, to periods of inaccessibility, to periods of crass administration, if we're not careful," he said.

He appealed to the people of the North to vote "in conscience" for their children's education. "Vote for people who will work in co-operation with each other and please keep the flame of their future kindled," he said.

"We don't want to go back to an absentee minister, to direct rule, and simply having administrators telling us what's going to happen without [the] necessary checks and balances which we have at present," he said.