DUP are content to hand over the education system to Ruane

Basil McCrea MLA, Ulster Unionist Party Spokesperson for Education has responded to Mervyn Storey's accusation that the Ulster Unionist Party's current opposition to the Education Bill is nothing short of political opportunism.

In a statement Mr. McCrea said;

"The Ulster Unionist Party oppose this Bill because the Minister for Education is intent on constructing a top heavy and centralised Agency that is largely based on ideology and not on educational need".

"The DUP made reference to our Manifestos in which we gave support to an ESA structured so as to give authentic representation to the controlled, maintained and other sectors. Our current position does not deviate from this belief - this Bill makes provision for the dissolution of CCMS as a statutory body but the future role of CCMS and the Transferors Representative Council remains very unclear".

"We support streamlining unnecessary bureaucracy but not handing all power to the Education Minister".

Turning to the DUP's own position Mr. McCrea said:

"When Sammy Wilson was DUP Education Spokesperson he seemed to me to be quite opposed to the proposals coming forward for an ESA".

In an Assembly debate on 4^th March 2008 Mr. Wilson said:

"The Proposal seems to be to be to move everything to the centre in the longer run and put it into a grand regional education and skills authority that will be remote inaccessible and unaware of local concerns."

Mr. McCrea concluded by saying:

"This saber rattling is really about the DUP struggling to justify its own position".

"This is a flawed Bill that places too much power with the Minister for Education. It will not allow for the Assembly, education professionals, schools or councils to sufficiently influence the future direction of education in Northern Ireland. This is un-democratic and although we expected this from Sinn Fein I had hoped for more from the DUP.