The Government has come under criticism from the North over its plans to cut grants to Protestant secondary schools.
After the Orange Order met ministers to demand the cuts be withdrawn, its sister group the Royal Black Institution will tomorrow hold separate meetings with Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe and Fine Gael Education spokesman Brian Hayes.
Protestant church leaders have already been heavily critical of the decision to remove grants historically offered to 21 fee-paying Protestant schools in a Government bid to save €2.8 million.
The Royal Black Institution today said it feared that up to half of the Protestant managed secondary schools in the Republic could face closure because of the cuts.
The institution today said: “There are 28 Protestant post-primary schools in the Irish Republic, six of which are comprehensive and should be fairly safe. “However, of the remaining 22 schools which have a definite Protestant ethos, half of them could close. It is blatant discrimination, dressed up as budget cuts. The Government of the Irish Republic is basically taking Protestant schools out of the free system and will destroy them.”
The institution said government risked making a decision that would be branded as sectarian.
“Many of the children attending the Protestant managed schools are Catholic and they will also be affected by the cuts imposed by the Government,” said the Institution.
“Instead of cutting grants to Protestant managed schools, we believe that the Government of the Irish Republic must put in place a funding system that creates equality by providing positive discrimination to the minority population.”
Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork Paul Colton has described the Government plans as a “sorry business”.
In a strongly worded speech he accused the Government of overseeing “brutality and financial back-street butchery inflicted on Protestant schools in last year’s Budget”.
Earlier this week the Government announced it was overturning a previous cost-saving plan by Mr O’Keeffe.
In May, Mr O’Keeffe said he no longer had the funds to finance expansion plans for the all-Ireland Autism Centre at Middletown, Co Armagh.
But after lobbying from Northern Ireland ministers, including Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, it was announced at the North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Limavady on Monday that the scheme was now back on track.
PA