An insider's guide to education: The Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, does not have to be best of chums with some 40,000 teachers. But was it wise for him to be seen as picking a fight with the profession over the Christmas period?
In staffrooms across the State, they are still fuming over that pre-Christmas swoop by inspectors seeking out "truant teachers". Teachers point out that it was the management bodies who decided on opening hours.
Dempsey may have right on his side. The teaching unions did, after all, agree to work up to December 23rd last, but he has undoubtedly burned some bridges with teachers, who tend to remember these things.
The big question now is whether the Minister will be moving out of Education in the June reshuffle. The latest speculation has linked him to the agriculture portfolio.
Some senior figures in Education are convinced that Dempsey is moving on, but others are less certain.
Meanwhile, the Minister is preparing to launch his ambitious "Education Vision" shortly with roadshows at hotels all across the State.
He has also recruited PR company, Carr Communications to help spread the good news.
Some concern in the College of Surgeons about a €5 million shortfall in the pension fund. Over 200 employees are members of the pension fund. The college stresses that nothing untoward has taken place. The pension fund, like some others, is suffering because of the economic downturn.
That HEA proposal for a new fund to oversee research funding has attracted much favourable comment.
The HEA envisages a new Knowledge Fund with a Cabinet sub-committee, chaired by the Taoiseach, doling out the money to the various agencies over a three- to five-year timeframe. It is a sensible way of giving the vital research area the kind of political attention it needs.
It might also help to avoid the damaging disputes we saw arising last year over research funding.
The forthcoming departure of UCD press chief Tony Scott is likely to lead to a major shake-up in the college's communications strategy.
The avuncular Scott will return to his first love - teaching physics - before his retirement. Scott worked well with the former president, Art Cosgrove, but the word in Belfield is that new president Hugh Brady wants to recast UCD's whole communications strategy and give it a new priority.
The appointment of IDA chief Seán Dorgan as chairman of the DIT's governing body has been widely welcomed. Last year, he made a landmark speech lamenting the disconnect between education and the business sector.
All very well, but can he sort out the internecine feuding that seems to be part of life down at DIT?
