MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe has offered to review funding for Protestant schools after discussions yesterday.
The move will raise hopes that the dispute over a €2.8 million cut in funding may be resolved.
The Minister said payments to fee-paying schools could be restructured after he held talks in Dublin with the Royal Black Institution, a group linked to the Orange Order. He said he wanted to “explore ways of restructuring the grants mechanism so that we could better target existing funding in Protestant schools”.
The Royal Black Institution says up to a dozen of the 26 Protestant second-level schools in the State face closure within the next three years because of the cut in the ancillary grant made in last year’s budget. The grant covers the cost of caretaker and secretarial supports in schools.
Mr O’Keeffe described the meeting as “constructive” and said it was important for him to understand properly the position of Protestant fee-paying schools, particularly the difficulties faced by those in the Border counties.
He denied the cut had been discriminatory but stressed the payment of the ancillary grant had been repugnant of the Constitution. “In no way can I restore that grant in the format in which it was in. I’ve suggested that we might look at how we might restructure grants in general to Protestant fee-paying schools and make sure they have a sound constitutional base.”
Imperial grand treasurer Billy Scott said he believed the Minister wanted to see the problem resolved. He said many parents – particularly in the Border counties – felt the abolition of the grant targeted them both financially and socially.
Last year’s budget removed all voluntary Protestant schools from the free education scheme. The block grant for Protestant schools – covering capitation, tuition and boarding grants – remains in place at a cost of €6.25 million.
There are 26 Protestant second-level schools in the Republic. Five are comprehensive schools, while the remainder are voluntary. Most of these are boarding schools providing for a dispersed population.