A BITTER row over the Government's guillotining of the controversial Education Bill led to a 20 minute suspension of the Dail.

The Bill, which provides for the setting up of regional education boards to administer first and second level education, later passed its second stage and now goes to the Dail committee on social affairs.

Rejecting Opposition demands for an extended second stage debate, the Taoiseach strongly defended the Bill. Mr Bruton insisted that a substantial portion of Irish education had been operating on the basis of "a letter by a gentleman called Stanley addressed to the Lord Lieutenant in the 1830s". There had been no statutory provision regarding the matter until the current Dail and Minister for Education had acted.

The party's spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke, accused the Taoiseach of jackboot tactics and stifling debate. "It is an absolute disgrace," he added.

When Mr Burke asked about the rights of the churches, Mr Bruton retorted: "You are still tipping the forelock over there."

Earlier, the Fianna Fail deputy leader, Ms Mary O'Rourke, said that many TDs had arranged meetings over the weekend with constituency groups who wished to talk about the Bill. She challenged the Taoiseach to allow the second stage debate to continue into next week and the week after so that TDs could meet parents, teacher representatives and the churches.

Mr Bruton said he was satisfied that a substantial second stage debate had already taken place. "Specific changes in this Bill can only be made if we reach the committee stage. If we persist in discussing the general principle of the Bill, we will not be able to get to the point of discussing individual changes and improvements.

The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said that there had been a four hour debate on the Bill, with her party unable to have a second speaker. The legislation would have a detrimental effect on the education system and required a full debate.

"The Taoiseach is smiling. I am surprised the Taoiseach does not realise the implications of this legislation. We want to have an open, democratic debate, Taoiseach, and I do not know why you are guillotining the Bill. It is obviously a question of clearing the decks so that the Labour Party can have their ideology implemented before the election.

Mr Bruton said he was surprised that Ms Harney would refer to making statutory provision for the involvement of parents in education as nonsense.

"Do the deputies opposite want Irish education to be governed by British legislation dating back to 1879, or do they want this State to make its provision in its own legislation, in its own Houses of the Oireachtas, for the education of Irish children?"

Amid uproar, he went on to accuse the Opposition parties of having a "fundamentally backward looking attitude," adding that it was about time that parents were given a statutory right to take part in education.

The FF spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin, said there was an attempt, via the Bill, "to rewrite the White Paper, take the church out of education, there is an agenda to centralise Irish education ... a State takeover...

The Ceann Comhairle, Mr Sean Treacy, called a vote on the proposal to guillotine the Bill, and it was carried by 68 votes to 55. However, the exchanges continued, with Ms O'Rourke addressing the Taoiseach: "Shame on you, you have silenced your own deputies on a fundamental issue." After a number of warnings, Mr Treacy adjourned the House. When it returned, debate on the Bill began.

The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said the Education Bill was the greatest decentralisation of power to the regions of recent times.

"Contrary to the carping criticisms of the Opposition this Bill is not about State control of education. That is just a smear that is typical of the rather infantile approach which passes for analysis on the Opposition benches."

The Bill was not about extending ministerial power. Rather, he said, it was about creating a model of partnership in education in which the partners freely and openly plan for an increasingly complex future. "It brings to education a social partnership model which is the norm in a Europe in which Ireland plays an increasing part."

Under the Bill the "highly centralised bureaucracy," which had been criticised in a report by the Organisation for Economic Co Operation and Development would be transformed. The Bill would give parents, with the other partners, a real say in planning education in the future.

The Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, replying to the debates, was constantly heckled. Some deputies, she said, professed not to see the need for the proposed regional boards. The rationale behind the proposal was simple - it would devolve authority from the centre to the regions and bring the administration of education and the provision of support services closer to the people who used them.

The allegations made about the cost of the boards were totally unfounded. The transfer of responsibilities from the Department to the education boards and the rationalisation of the VEC structure would result in a reallocation of funding within the system rather than a substantial new area of spending.

The fear had been expressed that the Bill's provisions relating to boards of management for schools would prevent a religious order or other body from setting up and running a school in accordance with its own traditions and beliefs. "There is nothing in the Bill to prevent this happening."

It had been suggested that the White Paper proposals were an attempt to eliminate the VECs or deprive them of their powers. On the contrary, the intention was to reform and strengthen the VEC sector, she said.

Mr Joe Costello (Lab, Dublin Central) paid tribute to the religious bodies which had established schools but, he said, the Bill proposed a wide ranging, holistic review of the education system.

Mr Michael Ahern (FE, Cork East) said the Minister was curtailing debate and attempting to enshrine her philosophy of education in statute by rushing the Bill through before the general election. Instead of allowing more autonomy to schools the Bill would bring everything under the control of the centre. "There is a touch of totalitarianism about it."

Fianna Fail believed that power should be devolved to local school managements. The party would abolish the regional boards on return to office.

Ms Kathleen Lynch (DL, Cork North Central) said the Bill provided for the first time a comprehensive framework for the operation of primary and secondary schools and for the active involvement of parents. It also provided for decentralisation.

The Bill was passed by 65 votes to 55.