INTO PRESIDENT Declan Kelleher says he believes Government backbenchers and councillors will soon force a U-turn on education cutbacks.
He said he knew many "individual Government party councillors who are completely opposed to Government policy on this" and predicted they would vote against the Government at local level.
Mr Kelleher's comments follow Saturday's education protest march in Dublin, which attracted more than 50,000 people.
"I think the backbench TDs in particular are under serious pressure. I think they are beginning to realise that this is something that this is absolutely genuine, it's authentic and that people are really, really concerned on it. Also county councillors all over the country are certainly realising that it's very, very significant," he said.
Mr Kelleher said motions opposing the cutbacks were now being put down at meetings of county councils. "That will be a very, very good test because I know an awful lot of Government party councillors who are completely opposed to Government policy on this. I believe that they'll come out and vote against the Government at local level. That'll be another strong indicator."
Asked if he was optimistic the Government would back down, he said: "I would certainly be optimistic in the sense that I believe the message is getting through. I believe they're going to have to think out their position."
However, speaking in Dublin earlier, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews said the Government had to have the courage of its convictions.
"We need to stick to principles such as fairness. We have to stick to what we've done, which is an increase in the education budget for next year. We have a €581 million capital plan for education next year for new school buildings and all of that has to be taken in context of a very difficult recessionary situation that we're in.
"So we need to balance that. We need to be persuaders of public opinion. We need to have the courage of our convictions and stick to what we believe is right, which is fairness in our budgetary approach." Asked if there could be any rolling back on cutbacks, he said: "We have a budget in place and we need to move on from here and recognise there are major challenges next year in 2009."
