Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This provision was included in the legislation because of lobbying from a certain cohort that wanted it to be put under the radar. When the 2018 Act was passed, it was progressive legislation and most attention was paid to the abolition of the baptism barrier. We all felt it was progressive legislation, but I made these arguments in the Seanad when it went through. I was voted down and that is what happens. We are now in a position, however, where we are asking people to defend it. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how the best argument that people can come up with is that not many schools actually use this criterion now. Other schools could use it and all schools could use it, if they wanted to do so. Every school could say to child A versus child B that the father of child A went to the school.

A great deal of inequality in Ireland is based on education. Nothing perpetuates inequality more than the Irish education system. Much of it comes down to what schools people have gone to, the advantages they have had, the area they have come from, etc. The committee will have to tackle the issue. To enshrine inequality in legislation, however, and to give more rights to those families who have had the advantage of attending secondary school, because their parents or grandparents did, is offensive to the idea of a republic. It is offensive to the idea of an education system that lifts everybody. Therefore, the argument that this type of approach does not really happen very often is a ridiculous one to my mind. I return to the situation of those children who need education more than anybody else. The possibility that such children would be asked even once in any process where their parents or grandparents went to school or that such a situation could arise in any circumstances in any school is something that should not be in any legislation and especially not in a proposed Bill on school admissions.

Those are my views. I will be interested to hear what the witnesses have to say.