Mr. Anthony Muldoon:

I will be brief because we are coming towards the end of the meeting and the Acting Chairman has been good to us so far with time.

On the opt-outs, to respond to Deputy Catherine Martin, what we want to see alongside the regulations around admission are regulations for opt-outs for schools so that the parents, children and teachers are empowered to enable the children to opt out of religious instruction during the school day. We have had public meetings across the country and an issue that has come up a great deal is that parents who choose to do it and who engage with the school on how to do it are being essentially denied it by the school. In some situations, it is not the parent who suffers; it is the child. One child, in particular, who we were told about, did not make communion. On the Monday after the ceremony, there was a party in the school and the child was placed in third class and not allowed to participate as a result of not being involved. In such a situation, the only person who suffers is the child. In our opinion, that is not good enough. With the provision in the Bill making a school publish an opt-out provision, if the Department gives the school the criteria to do that with, it gives everyone more power with which to do it. In addition, if one has continuous professional development for teachers to enable them to engage with it, it will be better for everybody.