THE CHURCH of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Paul Colton, has revealed that he has received sectarian letters over his comments regarding the withdrawal of State funding to Protestant schools.
Bishop Colton wrote on Twitter that he had received a number of anonymous letters over comments he had made regarding plans by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe to remove ancillary grants for 21 Protestant schools.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of the anonymous, sectarian letters I’ve opened today in response to Protestant schools debate,” said Bishop Colton in a comment he posted on Twitter on Monday morning.
A spokesperson for the bishop yesterday declined to comment further on the nature of the messages.
Speaking at Midleton College in Co Cork last month, Bishop Colton accused Mr O’Keeffe of hiding behind constitutional advice given to him on the funding of Protestant schools, and he questioned the Minister’s interpretation of the Constitution.
“Are we seriously to believe that the founding fathers and framers of our Constitution envisaged a situation where this Republic would become a hostile place for the children of the Protestant minority?” asked Bishop Colton.
He went on to describe the cuts implemented by Mr O’Keeffe in last year’s budget as “the budgetary brutality and financial backstreet butchery inflicted on Protestant schools in last year’s budget”.
The controversy stems from the abolition in the budget of a series of ancillary supports for 21 Protestant schools, which cut payments for caretaker, secretarial and other support staff and which was aimed at achieving savings of about €2.8 million in a full year.
Protestant schools said the move was inflicting real hardship on many of their members and marks a break from a tradition dating back to 1967 when the Government allowed fee-paying Protestant schools to enter the free education system, in recognition of their special role.
