Profile: In setting his terms for attending next week's teacher conferences the Minister for Education has shown the boldness typical of his career so far, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter
Noel Dempsey hardly expects a rapturous reception next week when he makes his annual round of the teachers' conferences. After yet another year of tension with the teaching unions, the Minister for Education has every reason to expect a frosty response from their members. Still, Dempsey will meet the teachers on his own terms. Keen to avoid a repeat of the verbal drubbing he received at the TUI conference last Easter, he would not have it any other way.
Less than a year ago Dempsey's political credibility was severely dented when he persisted with a plan to reintroduce college fees right up to 10 days before the start of the Leaving Cert. With the Progressive Democrats opposed to the initiative, the effort came to nought after a special meeting in the constituency office of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in Drumcondra, Dublin. Ahern was with the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, and Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. Together, they spiked Dempsey's plans. Although Dempsey secured a €42 million fillip for programmes to help widen access to higher education, he cut a lonely figure.
It was a major setback for the former career guidance teacher, who tends to favour the underdog. Dempsey saw the initiative as a way of encouraging wider university access. But with Fianna Fáil TDs whispering that his handling of the affair meant "disaster" for the party, there was fear of a middle-class revolt against the Government. This will not have gone over the head of Dempsey, an ardent party man who represents the small man in a movement long dominated by the big-timers.
He attributes his social outlook to his background. Dempsey, whose father sold insurance, was never pampered. He was the fifth of 12 sons. He spent a year and a half training for the priesthood in Maynooth before quitting. He emerged with a pass degree and huge political ambition.
Dempsey's judgment was found wanting over university fees, but the unconventional Meath TD has not gone away. Ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle this summer, he bears all the signs of a man seeking to retain his portfolio. For weeks he has been attending a State-wide series of public meetings on the future of the education system. He has been seen taking copious notes at the back of the hall at the "Your Education System" (YES) roadshow.
The aim is to produce a statement on the long-term strategic priorities of a system that continues to discriminate heavily against disadvantaged children. It is not the enterprise of a man in the final months of his posting, even if speculation around Leinster House suggests that Ahern is lining up the Government chief whip, Mary Hanafin TD, for the job.
If Dempsey stays, the YES process could represent an opportunity for a determined Minister to radically reshape the education system in accordance with his own sense of social justice. However, he has embarked on similar schemes before and failed to deliver.
In the Coalition's first term, his efforts to reform local government ran aground quickly. As minister for the environment, Dempsey wanted to end the dual mandate which left TDs free to sit on local councils. He could not secure backing from the Independent TDs whose support kept the Coalition in business. He spent significant political capital on this question while bigger problems festered over waste management and planning.
The annual teachers' conferences are the highlight of the union year. A reformer by nature and never one to shirk confrontation, Dempsey signalled weeks ago that he would attend only if they provided an opportunity for him to attend a YES-style forum. He wanted dialogue instead of the set-piece ministerial speech and the instant union rebuttal. But the TUI, the ASTI and the INTO immediately went into resistance mode. Teachers pointed out privately that outsiders would never be allowed to set the agenda at the Fianna Fáil ardfheis, as Dempsey was trying to do at their conferences.
Despite such opposition, compromises were reached when Dempsey's people spoke to the unions. The last of these deals was finalised on Thursday with the ASTI. Dempsey is now set to travel next week to the three conferences in counties Kerry and Galway. He will get his YES debates, or a form thereof.
Big deal? Maybe not. But the episode is typical of a dogged Minister whose upfront political style is to barge through the front door instead of knocking first. If squabbles with the teachers' unions tend to be more soap opera than high drama, the latest one illustrates that Dempsey still favours the bold manoeuvre over the contrived art of persuasion. He does not set out to please everyone.
If this is highly risky, it brings occasional success. Dempsey went over the heads of the ASTI leadership last year to make a direct appeal to its members to support plans to allow non-teachers to supervise the schoolyard. The initiative worked for Dempsey, who had sensed that teachers were moving away from the hard-line ASTI leadership.
No one doubts the streak of bravery in Dempsey, but bold moves can backfire too. If many remember that Dempsey was responsible for the plastic-bag tax during his time at the Department of Environment, very senior TDs in his own party complain that he pursued the dual-mandate policy long past its sell-by date.
If they note also that Dempsey secured record funding in this year's Budget for the school-building programme, they show scorn for his refusal to entertain the lobbying of TDs about where that money should go.
"The criteria are laid out on his website; but you can't bring a delegation to meet a website. Half the business in the political scene is to show good cause," says one TD. Dempsey himself is not above a little clientelism: he ensured that the new offices of the National Council for Special Education were located in his home town of Trim.
Instinct comes before all in high-end politics. Fianna Fáil TDs are still more likely to cite the fees debacle than any of Dempsey's other efforts in education. While recognising his good intentions in pursuing the fees issue to its sorry end, they say a shrewder sense of political judgment might have seen him change tack sooner.
"He's seen as very idealistic and a pleasant guy, but not the most copped-on politically," says one Fianna Fáil colleague.
Dempsey paid the political price over fees, even if many in his party believe he would not have persevered with the issue without support from Ahern. With the public finances under growing pressure at the time, McCreevy stood to gain from any reintroduction of fees. But McCreevy's role in the affair was scarcely remarked on, even though his department had the fees issue on the agenda for months.
It was Dempsey who once again took the rap for the Government when Ms Justice Laffoy resigned last year from the child abuse inquiry. When the judge accused the Government of rendering the inquiry powerless and of putting it in an impossible position with the Department of Education, Dempsey was sent out with the denials. Yes, he was the line Minister. But while the judge criticised the entire Government, Dempsey allowed himself to become the public face of a Coalition that seemed to be struggling for a response.
All of this has contributed to a sense in Leinster House that Dempsey may have peaked in the Cabinet with the education post. Senior TDs speak of Dempsey being overtaken by other Cabinet middle-rankers such as Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications and Energy, and Martin Cullen, who inherited the Department of Environment from Dempsey. In a setting where political results are crucial, he is not seen as an immediate candidate for a higher Government posting.
"The joke among colleagues is what ministry can you send him to where he won't do a lot of damage," says one Government TD.
While Dempsey is often said to have ambitions of leading Fianna Fáil one day, this is not seen as a realistic prospect.
"I don't think the backbenchers would have it," comments one figure who is close to the Ahern leadership.
Dempsey is probably more principled than political. The dual mandate was one of two major leftover issues from his time at the Department of Environment. Cullen delivered a result on the electronic voting initiative last year but he is still grappling with opposition to the issue.
The initiative was a classic Dempsey proposal, grounded in a stubborn determination to replace a manual voting system that worked perfectly well. Cullen has supported the initiative but, alive to the political headache it has presented, he has no great affection for it.
"If he was around for the birth of the child he would have given the child up for adoption," said one person of Cullen's experience with the electronic voting issue. That is not the Dempsey style.
The Dempsey File
Who is he?
Noel Dempsey, Minister for Education and Science
In the news because
He threatened not to go to the annual teachers' conferences next week because he prefers dialogue to hectoring speeches. He will go now, after a compromise on the structure of the conferences
Most appealing characteristic
Determination not to appeal to the "catch-all" mentality in politics
Least appealing characteristic
Failure to plan a strategy. Policies cannot be made to work by stubbornness alone
Most likely to say
If I am taoiseach, there will be university fees
Least likely to say
The oath of office as taoiseach