It’s easier to make promises in opposition than it is to implement them in government. Sinn Fein is seeking to broaden its electoral base to appeal more to the middle and aspiring middle classes, the very people that send their children to fee-paying schools in Dublin where most are located.
The party has softened some of its more extreme tax proposals in recent years to win over that vote. It risks alienating the parents of the 25,000-plus pupils in fee-paying schools because of a point of political principle that wouldn’t save any money in the long run.
The reality is that ending taxpayers’ support would drive most fee-paying schools into the Free Education scheme where the teachers’ salaries have to be paid anyway and where schools would become entitled to building and other grants. And what about those smaller Protestant schools whose continued existence would be under threat?