Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

With due respect, I think the Minister is over-complicating this issue. There is nothing onerous or complex about moving religious instruction to the end of the school day. That facilitates children at many levels. There has been many arguments put forward today on reasons of fairness and respect for children who may not share the religious beliefs of the patron of the school they are attending and many reasons why it makes practical sense to do what is proposed in the three amendments, which is to move religious instruction to the last class of the day. That makes sense. We have given the Minister the reasons but he has not given us any reason as to why he should not do that. For that reason I am pressing the amendment.