Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas le gach uile dhuine a tháinig anseo. I thank Mr. Osborne for his wonderful presentation. I greatly appreciate it. Without a shadow of a doubt, it is quite clear that integrated education is excellent education. It is a very important sector in the education system. It is a sector that I want to see increase and grow in the North of Ireland over the next number of years. From my perspective and from the perspective of Aontú, we believe in a pluralist education system. I probably would disagree with the idea that all schools should become integrated schools. Parents should be able to choose which school they send their children to. That has to remain a key element of a liberal democratic education system - that there is a pluralism of ethos and that parents and children can select the ethos they wish to go to.

I agree that there is a difficulty in the lack of integrated options and choices in the North of Ireland at the moment. The point about having a statutory planning unit officially with in the Department of Education there is very important to drive the sector there.

I do not disagree with any of the language that I have heard today, but some of the language outside of this debate can be a little bit difficult at times. I have heard other people outside of this debate mention that Catholic schools and Protestant schools are parcels of hate and they are the cause of the divisions in North of Ireland. It is very important that we say that the Catholic and Protestant schools are not cause of the divisions in the North of Ireland and that they are excellent schools and they valued elements of the education system in the North of Ireland. For many nationalists, especially, Catholic schools are very important because for many years they felt that the only official section of society that their history, language and culture was protected in within the North of Ireland were those schools.

In the South of Ireland, obviously, there is a need to remove many schools from the Catholic sector and to make more multidenominational and interdenominational schools available. There is a big push for that. When it happens, oftentimes, to a specific school, one will find that parents often have a difficulty with the change in the school that they went to and, indeed, perhaps where their parents went to as well.

My question is similar to Ms Hanna’s. How do we get to a fully pluralist education system; an education system where parents can choose the education for their children? What is the process? What is necessary? First and foremost, what is the stumbling block?

I recently met with representatives of a Gaelscoil school in Dungiven, south Derry, and they mentioned the lack of a statutory planning function within the education system. It seems that the department itself is a laggard in terms of recognising the new political and societal landscape that exists. Perhaps that is where some of the effort needs to be focused.

In the South, when a new school is being built, there is a process where parents are surveyed as to their desire of the patronage of that school. Is there a similar process in the North of Ireland? There is also a process for schools that want to migrate or transition from one patronage to another. Is that the same in the North? One of the speakers mentioned that the transformation process is there but it is very slow, almost glacial, in its development. I would appreciate if those three elements could be addressed.