Protestant church representatives have stepped up their campaign against recent budget cutbacks accusing the Government of discriminating against them through the October cutbacks which target their schools specifically.

The decision removed ancilliary grants from Protestant schools, which leading spokespersons said would force fee-paying schools to significantly increase their fees. The Government’s move meant that State funding of caretaker and secretarial staff were removed.

An increase in fees would force poorer Protestant families to drop out, especially in a time of recession, said former archdeacon of the Church of Ireland, Gordon Linney.

He was speaking at a meeting in Tallaght at the weekend which was attended by more than 300 people.

Following the meeting, Church leaders, teachers and parents said they would be stepping up their campaign against the cuts, according to a report in The Irish Times.

Like other fee-paying schools, Protestant schools have also faced an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio, which now stands at at 20:1 in fee-paying schools in comparison with 19:1 in other second-level schools.

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Most Rev Dr John Neill said the reclassification of schools in the Protestant sector was discriminatory towards students who wished to be educated in the Protestant ethos.

“What is at stake are 21 schools serving the Protestant community, some hundreds of years old, which are supported by a large number of people who wish to exercise their right to be educated within their own ethos,” he said.

Rev Linney said Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s position that all fee-charging schools could continue to employ additional teachers funded from fee income was not equitable.

Comparing Protestant schools with other voluntary fee-paying schools was not comparing like with like, the archdeacon said.

“In fairness some of these schools, through bursaries, do provide for some pupils from less privileged backgrounds. But their prime enrolment depends on the ability to pay. This is not the case for many Protestant children,” he said, adding that these schools were open to all Protestant children irrespective of their financial or academic status.

Rev Trevor D Gribben, education secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, said the loss of State-paid teachers in Protestant fee-paying schools “will impact most on the country’s poorest Protestants, will close schools and will also ultimately cost the Government money” as these children will still have to be educated elsewhere.

He said that the minority rights of people of the Protestant faith had to be protected. “It would be a shame in the days, post Good Friday agreement and St Andrews [agreement] when we’re working hard throughout Ireland to recognise minority rights and encourage everyone to play their part in the State, that a minority down here are discriminated against and are not able at school to reflect the Christian ethos that their parents wish.”

Meanwhile, a letter in today’s Irish Times from a number of teachers at Protestant schools says that “alarm-bells are ringing” about the future of these schools. The letter suggests that the cuts may force some Protestant schools to close.

The letter argues that the Department of Education “now pays for fewer teachers in Protestant schools, proportionately, than in Catholic schools”.

It goes on to insist that Protestant school are “not looking for special treatment” but “want the pupil-teacher ratio for our schools to be the same as in the majority of schools” which would re-establish a parity that has always existed.