EDUCATION GRANTS:THE EDUCATION cuts will have a particularly damaging impact on Protestant faith schools, Fine Gael frontbench TD Olivia Mitchell said yesterday.
She said on top of the cuts that affect all schools, Protestant faith schools will suffer a cut of one-third in the grant that was allocated to them when free second-level education was introduced by then minister Donogh O'Malley.
"The Budget measure cutting school services grants has the most serious implications, not only for the children it will affect directly, but for virtually all Protestant faith schools, some of which may have to close, and, more seriously, for the future of the Protestant community. I do not exaggerate in making that statement."
Ms Mitchell said the grant was designed to honour a commitment given by the founders of the State in 1922 to protect the educational needs of the minority community.
"Until the most recent Budget, this agreement had been honoured by successive governments through the decades."
Ms Mitchell said: "For the Minister to refer to this agreement now as a mere anomaly is hurtful and insulting and does not reflect the provenance of the agreement."
The schools that would be worst-affected catered for the Protestant community in rural areas, she said.Disadvantaged children would not be able to attend the school of their parents' choice.