There has been further criticism of the Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, after his announcement of reductions in the education budget for this year.
The INTO said the minister was 'fooling nobody' when he said that the cuts would not result in a reduction in services. It said cutting educational expenditure was a scandal, but to target the disadvantaged was unforgivable.
The former co-ordinator of schemes to reduce the school drop-out rate in parts of Dublin described the decision as a bombshell.
Earlier, opposition parties and education groups strongly criticised the cutbacks after the Department of Education outlined details of €36m that will be cut from its budget this morning.
The cuts will affect the budget for teacher recruitment and training. There will also be less money for programmes to encourage children to stay on at school.
€3.8m cut from adult education
Six million euro is to be cut from planned initiatives to reduce the school drop-out rate and €5m from programmes aimed at attracting socio-economically disadvantaged school-leavers to third level.
Six million euro is to be cut from in-service teacher courses, while over €6m will be cut back in IT research and development, and €5m in structural reform in the Department. 3.8 million euro is to be cut from adult education courses. Two million euro will be cut from second-level building projects and a further €1.3m of miscellaneous cutbacks is to take place.
The cuts follow an increase in charges to Third Level students that was announced over the summer. The Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, said last month that the focus of his tenure as Minister would be on tackling educational disadvantage and looking after those who were not very vocal.
Speaking on today's RTÉ News at One, Mr Dempsey said his department would not be spending one cent less than had been allocated for this year. He said, however, that the Government had the job of balancing the books.
"A backward step" - Fine Gael
Fine Gael said the cuts were a backward step that would have negative consequences for young people and society as a whole.
Labour said it almost defied belief that programmes designed to combat educational disadvantage had been targeted. Sinn Féin described the cutbacks as shameful, short-term thinking.
The National Adult Education Association accused the Government of a complete U-turn on its education budget. Aontas warned of a backlash from its members.
