Sir, - "With a comprehensive Universities Bill going through the Oireachtas and now the Education Bill, it seems clear that Irish education is entering a new era and in the process Irish democracy is being strengthened" (Prof J. Coolahan, Irish Times, January 8th, 1997).
Both Bills are highly flawed. They impose a statist system on second and third level education in Ireland with extra quangos and layers of bureaucracy, without adding a single extra student place. A government which cannot tolerate even one autonomous university has now chosen to target autonomous secondary schools. The bills attack diversity, pluralism and choice and the success of Irish education in order to import a failed British policy. If Irish education is to "enter a new era" the statist path chosen by the Minister on the advice of people like John Coolahan is the wrong choice to make.
It is impossible to agree that "Irish democracy is being strengthened" by these Bills. Both Bills show contempt for the rights of autonomous educational institutions and for their protections under the Constitution, the cornerstone of our democracy.
The real democratic test will be at the next election. Last year in a debate which included the Minister, the education correspondent of The Irish Times, Micheal Martin TD and the present writer, a student audience at TCD overwhelmingly defeated the proposed Universities Bill. Before Christmas I collected in one hour here over 300 signatures against the Bill and found that it had two supporters. This government's education Bills, being founded on quangos and bureaucracy, enjoy minimal support among those who teach and learn. Should the government persist with the education Bills it will lose many supporters and Irish democracy will be strengthened. - Yours, etc.,
24 Trinity College,
Dublin 2.