THE GREEN Party will come under intense pressure from Opposition parties and teachers' unions over coming days in the run up to a crucial Dáil vote on Thursday seeking to reverse Budget cuts in education.
The issue will be discussed by the six Green TDs and two Senators in Leinster House tomorrow in advance of the debate on a Labour motion on the pupil/teacher ratio on Wednesday and Thursday.
Teacher unions intend to hold a demonstration outside Leinster House on Wednesday evening to exert maximum pressure on Government TDs.
The Catholic Church intervened in the issue yesterday when it said "education should not have to bear significant cuts in funding as proposed in the recent Budget".
In a joint statement, the Catholic Bishops' Commission for Education and the education desk of the Conference of Religious of Ireland said the proposed cuts in education spending "compound an already difficult situation for the Irish education system which receives proportionately less Government funding than almost any other OECD member country".
Labour Party education spokesman Ruairi Quinn said yesterday that this week would be "make up your mind time" for the Greens.
"When the Labour Party motion on the education cuts is put to a vote on Thursday, each Green Party Minister and deputy will have to decide either to support the unprecedented act of social vandalism directed at the education system by the Government, or to stand with parents, pupils and teachers who are outraged at the damage the cuts will do," he said.
Mr Quinn said the Green Party had made education a centrepiece of its general election campaign, with a promise to spend more in this area than any other political party. "I am sure that many people were impressed by what the Greens said on education. Is the Green Party now going to betray the parents and teachers by not just failing to deliver on their own promises but by supporting these savage cuts?" asked the Labour TD.
He called on Green Party TD Paul Gogarty to live up to the statement he made in the Dáil last week when he read out an open letter calling on Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe to reverse the plan to increase class sizes. "These cuts simply cannot be allowed to go ahead. If they are implemented it will jeopardise the future prospects of our children," said Mr Quinn.
Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley rejected criticism, saying the party was in for the long haul. "The fact is we are not really pushed about what other people do or think . . . We consult widely, we consult with our grassroots and we make decisions on that basis," he told RTÉ's The Week in Politics.
"I think Paul has explained that of course we are not happy with education cuts . . . most of us have small kids in primary school and it is not something that we want to even contemplate," Mr Gormley said. "However, we do have a really, really, serious economic situation here and if the money is not available right now that is something that we have to take into consideration, there is no way around that."
A party spokesman said last night that Mr Gogarty's views would receive serious consideration at the party meeting tomorrow at which there would be a full discussion of the education issue. He also said that the party leadership planned a major consultation and information campaign with the membership.
Fine Gael frontbench spokesman Simon Coveney called on the Green Party to make a clear statement on what they want changed in the Budget or stay quiet and accept that they are an irrelevant voice in Government. "We have come to expect inconsistency from Fianna Fáil when Ministers say one thing and their backbenchers say another. However, the Greens only have six TDs - you would think deciding on a clear line would be simple enough," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe has agreed to meet the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland during the week to discuss their concerns about class sizes. While this raised some hopes of a compromise deal, a spokesman for the Minister said there was no question of a U-turn over the cuts.
