The Government's decision to sanction €36 million in education cutbacks has already met with serious criticism. The cutbacks - the Department of Education prefers to call them "adjustments" - will clearly affect disadvantaged students.
Over €6 million is to be cut from initiatives designed to reduce the school drop-out rate. In a move which beggars belief, the Government is also cutting €5 million from programmes which help disadvantaged school-leavers make it to third-level education.
The response to these cuts has been swift. Fine Gael said it made a mockery of the promise by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, to address the inequality at the heart of the education system. Labour, Sinn Fein and Aontas, the adult education agency, have also been sharply critical.
Mr Dempsey cannot be greatly surprised to find himself in the firing-line. Since his appointment, he has placed educational disadvantage at the top of his priority list. He has openly questioned why whole swathes of our population continue to be effectively locked out of our universities, despite the heavy State investment in the sector. He has promised to be the voice of the those who lack political clout or financial muscle. He has promised to speak up on behalf of those who do not have the access which the better-off enjoy to the media.
The nature of these cutbacks undermines such lofty aspirations. Mr Dempsey is vulnerable to the charge that he has targeted the very people - in disadvantaged areas of our cities - which he claims to be protecting. The Minister made a poor defence of his decision on radio yesterday. He said the adjustments were necessary because the take-up of some of these courses and their overall state of development was less than anticipated. But this raises wider questions about his department. The gross inequality of our third-level sector has been a blight on the education system for a generation. It seems extraordinary that a programme designed to alleviate it is being cut back because of a lack of demand.
Mr Dempsey is an experienced minister who made a considerable impact in the Department of Environment. Until the latest setback, he has been making a favourable impression in education. Few who know him doubt his sincerity when he talks about educational disadvantage. Even his detractors accept that he is a figure of some substance who has the potential to make a real difference in education.
It may be that - in agreeing these cutbacks - the minister took his eye off the ball. Certainly, his political antennae were not working effectively. Mr Dempsey controls an education budget of over €5billion. There must be other areas where spending could have been cut back.. If there had to be targets, it should have been the powerful and well-heeled, not those who are already suffering from educational disadvantage.