Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their contributions this evening. This is an important and complex issue.

The basic game of Government is to use our economic success to create a fair and compassionate society and ultimately to make life a little easier for people. A key part of this is making it easier for parents and children to more easily access local schools that reflect their values and needs. We all recognise that we need to deal with the situation whereby some religious schools, when oversubscribed, admit children of their own religion from some distance away ahead of children of other religions or no religion who live close by. It is important to remember that only 20% of schools are oversubscribed and therefore the vast majority of schools are unaffected by this issue. We are taking two major steps to make it easier for parents and children to more easily access schools.

First, the Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill 2016 has been published. It passed Second Stage on 17 November and is due to proceed to Committee Stage shortly. This Bill will reform the process of school admissions, including the banning of waiting lists and admission fees. It will ensure that where a school is not oversubscribed, it must admit all students who apply and will require more information and consultation for parents throughout the process.

Second, a comprehensive public consultation process on the role of religion in school admissions has commenced. The first stage of the consultation process for submitting written submissions has recently finished and submissions are being collated and examined. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, has also announced that the second stage of the process will involve a half-day forum on this matter to be held at the end of the month. The forum seeks to find a solution to address this issue, while respecting the desire of many parents to send their children to denominated schools. We must also ensure that minority religious groups continue to run schools which are of their own ethos.

Separately, the Government agreed last June that the Labour Party's Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016 would proceed to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills for scrutiny and would not come before the Dáil for a Second Stage hearing before 28 June 2017 to facilitate this. It is clear from the debate this evening that there is a broad consensus that children should have access to their local schools. This is particularly important at primary level. It is also clear from the discussion on this matter that the amendments proposed in this Equal Participation in Schools Bill involve significant legal and constitutional issues. Simply repealing section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act is not the solution. It would have significant implications for minority religious communities, including Protestant, Muslim and Jewish communities, and their ability to run primary schools in accordance with their ethos. This will not address the complex legal, constitutional and operational elements that a solution requires.

The Bill also proposes to remove references in the Education Act 1998 to the characteristic spirit of a school and provides that religious instruction and faith formation classes should take place after school hours. While the intention of the Bill may be to remove religious ethos, proposed removal of a concept of characteristic spirit will affect all schools, for example, in respect of the existing objectives of Irish language schools and special schools, as well as the secular approach of Educate Together schools. This proposal appears to have significant implications for the current governance of the school system and the role and functions of school patrons and boards, particularly those with a religious ethos.

The advisory group to the forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector acknowledged that denominational religious education and sacramental preparation are long-established features of the primary system and are likely to continue to be so. The forum report did not recommend that religious instruction be removed from the school day. The advisory group also put forward a number of practical suggestions on timetabling of religious education to facilitate those pupils whose parents want them to opt out of denominational religious education in primary schools. This includes the use of flexible timetabling to allow children who opt out to participate in another class and the timetabling of denominational religious education at the beginning or end of the school day to facilitate parents who wish to remove a pupil from the school during denominational religious education.

The Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill 2016, which is due to proceed to Committee Stage shortly, includes a specific requirement that school enrolment policies must include details of a school's arrangement for any students who do not wish to attend religious instruction. This is an important measure which will help to ensure transparency from the outset as to how schools will uphold the rights of parents in this regard. The Attorney General has also advised that she considers that a number of potential significant legal and constitutional issues arise for consideration with regard to the proposed amendments in this Bill. We need to ensure that any proposals in this area strike a balanced and measured approach in respect of competing rights and do not give rise to unintended consequences that create an adverse impact on the rights of parents to send their children to denominational schools of their choice, including schools of minority denominations.

I thank the Solidarity-PBP party for its proposal and consider that following the completion of a consultation process on the role of religion in schools admissions and consideration by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills of the Labour Party's Bill, we will be better positioned to identify the best way forward that captures the complex legal, constitutional and operational elements in this area.

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