Joe O’Toole let it be known that certain occupants of Leinster House had predicted a miniscule turnout, due to the inauspicious weather. Far from it – some sources say there were 12,000 protestors abroad that evening, others claim there were 20,000. They came from far and wide, from Donegal to Kerry, from Louth to Wexford. And they weren’t just teachers – there were college students, parents, school managers, children, politicians, union officials and ordinary citizens.

The messages on the sturdy placards were more comic than cruel:

“No More Batt-y Cuts”
“Don’t Batter Our Children”
“O’Keeffe Is Batts”
“Batt-man fled to China out of OUR hell”
“The Government’s gone batty”
“Batt-man robin our kids’ future”

There was one protestor who carried a picture of An Taoiseach attached to a Halloween-style coffin.

Addressing the rally, INTO general secretary John Carr said:

”We are here to say to the Government that the Budget was a full-frontal attack against the education system ... [it] will be resented and resisted in every school, in every parish, town and city in Ireland ...

”Class sizes are being increased to the largest in Europe, funding for Traveller children and special needs slashed, the free book scheme is gone in most schools, library funding ended and there is a five per cent cut in primary school buildings.”

ASTI vice president Joe Moran called the Budget mean-spirited and misguided, while TUI president Don Ryan said that what Ministers Lenihan and O’Keeffe had done was grievously unpatriotic and had undermined a whole cohort of young Irish people.

Ferdia Kelly, general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), warned that principals and deputy principals were saying loudly and clearly that they were “not available to supervise classes” when teachers were absent.

Mr Kelly was referring to the removal by the Budget of substitution cover for uncertified sick leave and for teachers on school business at second level from 7 January 2009.

Failure to maintain the current substitution system would mean an end to extra-curricular activities, fieldtrips, visits to theatres and cultural events – all the activities that make a young person’s experience of life so rich and memorable, Mr Kelly said.

Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together, said primary school managers were seeking advice on the issue of school closures in January. (Sources: Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner)