Education minister handed petitions from local schools
Part of the large protest group outside the council offices.
Education Minister, Batt O'Keeffe, has been presented with petitions from local schools in protest at the recent education cuts.
Both Swords Educate Together and Donabate Educate Together compiled petitions, which were handed over to the Minister by Cllr Darragh Butler at the recent Fianna Fáil councillors conference in Tullamore.
'My Dáil colleague, Michael Kennedy, and I were approached by parents from Swords Educate Together and Donabate Educate Together and after meeting with them, asked if we could send on their petitions to the minister,' Cllr Butler said.
'Each petition contained hundreds of names and I was happy, during my discussions with the minister, to make representations on their behalf.' The conference gave councillors an opportunity to raise their concerns with Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and various ministers.
Not surprisingly, the proposed education cuts and handling of the Budget in general were the main issues raised.
'I had the opportunity to raise the concerns of the various Swords and Donabate schools who had contacted me regarding the cuts, concerns that I have been regularly communicating to his department as and when I received from concerned parents and teachers.
'Since the conference, progress has been made and a compromise deal with regard to substitution cover has been reached between the minister and secondlevel schools.
