Protestors to picket Taoiseach’s Castlebar office

Friday, 03 February 2012 14:48

A MAJOR rally is planned within weeks outside Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s constituency office in Castlebar as opposition escalates and hardens to proposed cuts in primary school staffing.

Activists are warning they will descend on Tucker Street ‘in strength and numbers’ to express their opposition to the cost-saving measures.

They claim the school cuts are the latest hammer blow to rural Ireland.

Austerity measures already imposed on isolated communities include the closure of garda stations, post offices and charges on septic tanks.

The latest cost-pruning proposals are aimed at primary schools with 50 pupils or less and will take effect from next September.

Outrage over the planned changes in school staffing schedules was expressed at a well-attended meeting in Partry Community Centre on Thursday night.

Government politicians were noticeable by their absence from the meeting.

Mr. Tom Byrne, principal of 49-pupil Partry N.S., said community anger and passion had been stirred by the proposals.

He lamented: “We are losing our lifeblood…a generation, a way of life…rural Ireland is being bled dry while the wealthy elite of Europe grow fat on our labours”.

Since the meeting in Partry, further battle tactics are being formulated.

Mr. Byrne confirmed to The Connaught Telegraph yesterday (Monday) that these include a major rally outside the Taoiseach’s constituency office by parents and teachers from all over the province.

Rally organisers are convinced that a rally on the doorstep of Mr. Kenny – who started his career as a primary schoolteacher in Mayo- would be more effective and garner greater publicity than if protestors travelled to the gates of Leinster House to vent their feelings there.