After a week of intense political controversy, there was an air of crisis management about yesterday morning's press conference when details of a new €42 million package on educational disadvantage were announced. The Government hopes that an explosive dispute about the return of college fees has now been successfully defused.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has acknowledged that the fees issue is no longer on the political agenda. There will be widespread relief - particularly among middle class parents - that certainty has been returned to third-level education.
Mr Dempsey was doing his best yesterday to stress the scale of his achievement in securing new monies to help widen third-level access. But there is no doubt that he has been damaged by the entire episode. Not for the first time in recent years, Mr Dempsey's political judgment has been found wanting. He has acquired the unfortunate reputation as someone who promises a great deal but is not always in a position to deliver. Two years ago, his plan to end the dual mandate linking local councils and the Oireachtas had to be abandoned when Independents threatened to bring down the last, minority government.
Even Mr Dempsey's most ardent supporters would acknowledge that mistakes were made. The return of third level fees was not part of the programme for government and no effort was made to prepare the ground for his solo run with the Progressive Democrats nor, indeed, the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party. Mr Dempsey clung rigidly to the principle of fees - even when it became clear that a €100,000 income threshold would generate only €15 million in revenue.
Under pressure from his own Cabinet colleagues and the PDs, Mr Dempsey has been forced to make a humiliating climbdown. That climbdown has come 10 days before the start of the Leaving Certificate. The fact that additional monies for access programmes had to be found from a budget controlled by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, only adds salt to the wounds.
Mr Dempsey put a fine gloss on the climbdown yesterday when he insisted that his bottom line was always more money for access, rather than the return of fees. At his press conference, he declared himself quite happy to suffer the bruising of his political ego if he was seen to be making real progress on access.
It has to be acknowledged that the programme announced yesterday is not inconsiderable. The Government claims that some 56,000 students will gain from the new measures. While this may overstate the case, it is clear that the new package will have some impact where it is needed most - in working-class communities across the State.
Educational disadvantage does not begin at the gates of a third-level campus. Vastly more resources are required at pre-school, primary and second-level to address the problem. These are fundamental questions for Government, however, not the subject of a solo run.