Education policy in Northern Ireland another example of SF double standards – O’Reilly

“Sinn Féin’s Education Spokesperson, Jonathan O’Brien, is on the record as having said that education cuts result in a demoralised profession and an erosion of the goodwill that is so essential to the learning environment in classrooms. In light of planned cuts to education in Northern Ireland, does Sinn Féin stand by this statement?” asks Joe O’Reilly, Fine Gael TD for Cavan/Monaghan.

“The Department of Education in Northern Ireland this week outlined plans to implement 2,500 redundancies; 1,500 non-teaching and 1,000 teaching, in doing so ignoring collective agreements and periods of redundancy notices.

“It is the reality of Government that difficult decisions have to be made and it seems Sinn Féin is learning this lesson first-hand as Education Minister, John O’Dowd must cut his budget by £198m. Despite this Sinn Féin here in the south have done nothing but criticise the Government’s efforts to repair the country’s finances.

“During the negotiation of the Haddington Road Agreement Sinn Féin repeatedly objected to reducing public sector pay. They advocated making savings by targeting those at the top through capping hospital consultants pay or imposing a higher levy on pensions to former Ministers and Taoisigh. Sinn Féin also stated that they would make savings through taxation measures.

“None of these steps have been taken in Northern Ireland.

“This is yet another example of the Sinn Féin policy of ‘Do as we say, not as we do’.”