A DELEGATION of Orange Order members met Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe in Dublin yesterday to discuss the effect of budget cuts on Protestant schools.
In October of last year, the Minister said he would save €2.8 million in 2009 by regularising an “anomaly” that meant Catholic fee-charging schools were not getting certain State grants paid to others.
Grand secretary of the Orange Order Drew Nelson described yesterday’s meeting with Mr O’Keeffe in Leinster House as “constructive”. He said the cuts were a “really important issue for our members on scattered farms in the Border areas”.
Mr Nelson said: “We complained to the Minister about the special support grant being cut for Protestant schools. This has a tremendous effect on schools in the Border area. We have members living in Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal and a few in Leitrim.”
Mr Nelson said the Orange Order saw the meeting as “the start of a process of engagement”.
“We hope to be able to work with the Minister to try and resolve this issue and it is our intention that we would be back again to see this resolved in due course.” He explained that the idea of requesting the meeting had come from “our members on the ground in the southern border counties”.
He added: “This is the first time that an Orange Order delegation has ever entered the precincts of those buildings and so it’s an historic occasion.” A spokesman for the Minister said the meeting was “very constructive” and said there had been a commitment on both sides to work in partnership into the future.
He confirmed that the Minister was open to the possibility of a future meeting with the Orange Order at a later date, should it be requested.
The background to this arrangement with Protestant schools was a deal struck in the 1960s by Donogh O’Malley. As minister for education, he agreed to give extra funds to schools catering for dispersed Protestant communities while allowing them to continue charging fees. A large portion of this State aid is distributed to students from poorer backgrounds.
The headmaster of Monaghan Collegiate School, Michael Hall, welcomed the meeting.
“It’s an historical day when the Orange Order and the Irish Government can meet and discuss areas of mutual concern not linked to conflict on our island,” he said.
Mr Hall said he was not a member of the Orange Order and said the order was not acting on behalf of schools but in response to concerns from its membership in the Republic of Ireland.
“Members of the community are concerned that Protestant families no longer have access to free education and concerned that members of the Protestant community may not be able to financially sustain their children’s education in a school of their chosen ethos,” he said.
