Niamh Bhreathnach obituary: One-term TD and minister for education had a transformative impact

Born: June 1st, 1945

Died: February 6th, 2023

Niamh Bhreathnach who has died aged 77 was a fearless – and some thought foolhardy – minister for education who challenged powerful interests in her five-year term in office, and who served only one term in the Dáil.

She had an early interest in women in politics, joined the Labour Party and was elected the first woman to be party chair in 1990. Under leader Dick Spring, who had led the parliamentary charge against taoiseach Charles Haughey, Labour won a record 35 seats – a phenomenon known as the Spring Tide – in 1992.

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A first-time candidate and a teacher, Bhreathnach was elected for the Dún Laoghaire constituency and went straight into the cabinet. As the first Labour member to become minister for education, she hit the ground running. Her party leader told to tackle disadvantage, and radical programmes such as “Breaking the Cycle” and “Early Start” made meaningful changes in the education for poorer families.

An early conversation with the mandarins in her new department was instructive. She questioned the philosophy underpinning their work. The response was straight out of Yes Minister: “We don’t do philosophy.” The feisty “new broom” replied that the word meant “practical wisdom” and that philosophy of education certainly was the business of the department.

Working with a dedicated team of civil servants, led by her newly appointed secretary general Don Thornhill, she insisted that the Department of Education had the responsibility to lead as well as administer the system. A white paper or statement of intent, Charting our Education Future, which she published in 1995, began with a philosophical rationale for education.

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Decisions and initiatives issued from Marlborough Street in rapid succession and some were controversial. It is difficult to imagine nowadays the hullabaloo that surrounded the introduction of the RSE (relationships and sexuality education) programme. Other initiatives included the social, personal and health education programme; the creation of civic, social and political education as an examination subject to encourage young people to take an interest in politics; and senior cycle reform, including Leaving Certificate Applied.

When the going got heavy, as sometimes it did, she observed that the Department of Education ‘grinds slowly and sometimes backwards’

She also addressed school governance; certification of further education; the extension of the support teacher service and the school psychological service and the designation of the regional technical colleges as institutes of education.

Especially significant was the application of EU structural funding to teacher professional development. This was to put in place a critical infrastructural service known as the education centre network. When the going got heavy, as sometimes it did, she observed that the Department of Education “grinds slowly and sometimes backwards”. And there was no shortage of powerful interests trying to push it back.

Political battleground

The University Act of 1997 took her on to a political battleground dominated by traditional interests that fought tooth and nail to resist change. After 35 hours of Seanad debate and more than 100 amendments, the Bill was passed with many of her objectives achieved.

The abolition of third-level undergraduate fees was another landmark of her time in office, though opinion is now divided on its success in its objective of tackling the exclusion of disadvantaged students.

Other initiatives under way when she left office included IT2000, which started the process of introducing IT training for teachers and students.

She was one of five daughters born to Dubliner Breandán Breathnach and Clare-born Lena Donnellan: both parents were civil servants. Her father was a co-founder of traditional pipers Na Píobairí Uilleann and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. The family lived in Blackrock, Co Dublin, where she attended Sion Hill secondary school.

She might have expected some voter gratitude. Not so: the Spring Tide had turned. Eaten bread is soon forgotten, her political friends and foes alike noted

After school, she trained as a Froebel teacher and worked in the inner city. At the end of her term in office, she might have at least expected to retain her Dáil seat. Abolishing university undergraduate fees hand had benefited no constituency more than the predominantly middle-class voters of south county Dublin.

In government Labour had also delivered much of the liberal agenda, on divorce, disability rights and legalisation of homosexuality. She might have expected some voter gratitude. Not so: the Spring Tide had turned. Eaten bread is soon forgotten, her political friends and foes alike noted.

Bhreathnach did not return to national politics. She subsequently represented the Blackrock ward on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and was elected cathaoirleach in 2004-2005.

Niamh Bhreathnach is survived by her husband, Tom Ferris, and their children Cliodhna and Macdara, and her sisters Sighle, Fionnuala and Eadaoin. Another sister, Eibhlín, predeceased her.