where's me country?

Choice in Schools and Education

11.11.2005

It seems that one of the unforseen outcomes of Ferns has been the wedging of another related-but-not issue to the whole fallout. Liz O Donnell's intervention recently in the Ferns debate in Dail Eireann, reported here;

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"Ms O'Donnell said that all roads led to what she called the unrelentingly deferential relationship between Church and State.She said this relationship was the at the root of society's failure to stop what she termed the Church's systematic maladministration and dereliction of duty to protect children."

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That seems to be a fair enough comment coming from a party looking increasingly like a traditional secular liberal party. At that point the implication of what she was saying on PD thinking was certainly not on my mind, truisms have a way of seducing you like a siren into simple responses.

Berties rather robust defence of the Catholic Church outlined their indispensibility as education providers in the state;

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"Describing the Catholic Church as an important part of civil society, he said its role in managing our primary schools was indispensable and that without it our education system would become unmanageable."

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Bertie brought up the education bit Im sure inoccuously but he may have opened a can of worms. Todays RTE report sees Mary Harney supporting her own TD, unsurprisingly. It also sees an alliance being forged by the PDs and Fionnuala Kilfeather CEO of the National Parents Council Primary, the call is clear and unambiguous, choice in public schools.

That seems a tad new labour to me, I just picked up on it and decided to post. If you dont follow newLabour and other machinations across the water, they recently published an education white paper claiming to bring 'choice' to parents in piking schools etc. The paper is located here, yet it has been roundly condemned by backbenchers and commentators as being worse than anything the Tories imposed and more divisive in terms of provision. Im not suggesting for a minute that will happen here. Im simply worried that the choice agenda and its dodgy policies may shape up to save the PDs from destruction at the next election.

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"Fionnuala Kilfeather, said the council believed in the right of parental choice, as set out in the constitution. She also said there had been many changes in Irish society over the last several decades."

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So the ideological battle ground may yet be opened up between the PDs and their government allies over choice in public services. We havent had much of that talk thus far simply action and creeping privatisation. It seems strange that the Ferns report may be that cause which finally forces open debate about public provision of education and whether the state can do it alone, and if it cant how it should manage its public sector.

Or it mightn't
RR


Categories: Irishpolitics, Comment, PDs,

This entry was posted on 11.11.2005 at 11/11/2005 10:55:00 a.m.. There are . If you want, you can leave your own response by clicking here. You may also send this post to a friend of yours via email, or bookmark it for yourself by using icons below;