Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to be here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Quinn, to discuss the proposed resolutions from the Dáil and Seanad approving the draft of the order which I will be proposing.

The order seeks to reserve 32 places in the first year of the Bachelor of Education degree course in the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, for students who are members of the Church of Ireland or belong to the broad Protestant tradition. The making of the order and its laying before the Houses arises from the provisions of the Employment Equality Act 1998 and is designed to ensure that the rights and interests of colleges and schools with a Protestant ethos and the students of those schools are provided for.

The Employment Equality Act 1998 prohibits discrimination on a wide-range of grounds, including religion. While the Act deals primarily with discrimination in employment it also extends to discrimination in vocational training. Vocational training is defined as any system of instruction that enables a person to acquire the knowledge for the carrying of an occupational activity. Teacher-training falls within this definition. For many years, the Church of Ireland College of Education has provided training in primary school teaching only to students who come from the Church of Ireland and the broader Protestant tradition. The purpose of this practise is to ensure that there is available to schools under Protestant ownership a sufficient number of teachers who themselves come from a Protestant background and are trained in an institution with a Protestant ethos.

Most primary schools in the State are privately owned, publicly funded denominational schools. This system of denominational education is underpinned by the Constitution. Central to the right of the religious denominations to conduct schools with a particular ethos is their need to ensure that they have available to them a body of staff belonging to and trained in the particular religious denomination of the school. If such staff were not available, the constitutional right to free profession of religion and the conduct of denominational schools would be seriously impaired. To avoid imposing what would in effect be unconstitutional restrictions on the rights of the religious denominations in this regard section 12 of the Employment Equality Act 1998, which prohibits discrimination in vocational training, makes two exceptions. It provides that the prohibition of discrimination does not apply for the purpose of ensuring the availability of nurses and teachers to denominational hospitals and primary schools respectively.

In the case of primary schools the section provides that an educational or training body may apply to the Minister for Education and Skills for an order permitting the body to reserve places on the vocational training course. The Minister for Education and Skills, with the consent of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, may then make an order allowing the body to reserve such number of places to meet the need for teachers in primary schools as is considered appropriate. The Church of Ireland College of Education has made an application on behalf of the college for the reservation of 32 places in the college for the academic years 2013-2014 up to 2017-2018 for students who are members of recognised churches in the Protestant tradition.

The college makes the case that the reservation of 32 places, which is currently the full complement of first year places in the college, should be made in order to provide sufficient teachers for Protestant schools over the next number of years. The grounds for the request as put by the college are as follows: the necessity of providing a sufficient number of qualified primary teachers to maintain the distinctive ethos of Protestant schools remains the central concern and motivation for seeking the order; primary schools in the Protestant community depend almost exclusively on the college for the provision of an annual supply of well qualified teachers from a Protestant background; a reported continuing shortage of applicants for teaching positions in Protestant primary schools, particularly small schools in rural areas; some of those who enter the college will not complete their studies and of those who qualify some will not take up posts in schools with the Protestant ethos; also, a number of graduates go to live and work abroad while others engage in further studies.

I believe, in the circumstances set out by the college, the continuing reservation of 32 places in the college for students from the Protestant tradition appears reasonable to ensure that Protestant schools have available to them a sufficient number of teachers who share their value system and religious beliefs. Apart from the constitutional requirements from which this order flows, the order is a necessary support for the maintenance of diversity of values, beliefs and culture in our education system and Irish society. Given that schools with a Protestant ethos represent only a small minority of primary schools in the State, there is clearly a risk that that ethos could be diluted unless specific protections are provided. This order puts in place a protection which the Oireachtas considered appropriate and which will guarantee Protestant schools that they can continue to provide education for their students in accordance with their particular values and beliefs.

I acknowledge that some aspects of the environment in which the Church of Ireland College of Education operates are changing. I refer in this regard specifically to developments in relation to school patronage and the work underway on the restructuring of teacher education provision in Ireland. However, there is a continuing need for this provision to be made. The primary legislation governing the order provides that it may be revoked and any effects of these developments on the necessity for the order will be kept under review.

I thank the committee for its consideration of this important issue, which safeguards and supports the maintenance of diversity of values, beliefs and culture in our education system and Irish society.