“Vulnerable” students are set to be the next victims of Labour’s
“culture war” against religious faith in public life, .jpg)
Fianna Fáil
Education spokesperson, Charlie McConalogue TD, has said.
He was responding to suggestions by Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordáin (pictured) to cut the chaplaincy services from VECs and community schools.
Mr
Ó Riordáin, formerly the principal of St. Laurence O’Toole’s Girls’
Primary School, a Catholic school in Dublin’s inner city, proposed the
cuts last year.
He said that the payment of €9 million for
school chaplains should be reconsidered by Education Minister Ruairi
Quinn, in the context of other cuts being made to services.
However, yesterday Mr McConalogue described this proposal “myopic and mean spirited”.
Deputy
McConalogue commented, “The attempt of the Labour Party to remove all
trace of religious faith from public life in Ireland is well understood,
however the latest front in this Culture War marks a new low.
“Deputy
Aodhán Ó Riordáin’s proposal to cancel funding for chaplaincy services
in VECs and community schools comes hot on the heels of the Labour
Party’s dismantling of the school counsellor system and shows a shocking
disregard for the effect that these decisions are having on vulnerable
students.
“As someone with a background in education, you would
expect Deputy Ó Riordáin to understand that the chaplaincy service in
these institutions is more about student support than anything else.
“Since
his party demolished the student counsellor system, these individuals
have taken on a more important pastoral support role than ever before.
“Unfortunately,
it appears that such considerations take a back seat when it comes to
the Labour Party’s prosecution of their Culture War. The proposal is
myopic and mean spirited and I am calling on the Minister for Education
to move quickly to dissociate himself and his department from it.”
Mr
O Riordáin, speaking in the Dáil last year about the proposal, said
that, in the context of the contribution made by guidance counsellors it
was “arguably justifiable to discontinue this payment in order to
protect other services”.
He added: “I hope to work with the
Minister and his officials with a view to examining this matter in the
coming months to ascertain if my proposal is a viable one.”
Mr O’Riordain has also said he does not believe that religious ethos has a place in the schools of a “modern republic”.