Mr. Hubert Loftus:

Just to add to the comments the Deputy makes about patronage, I will not go through all of that again as I am conscious of time but I will make a general comment. One of the schools, a Gaelscoil called Scoil Chaitlín Maude in Tallaght, did reconfigure and an interesting aspect of this which may have wider learnings is that it reconfigured from the Catholic church to An Foras Pátrúnachta on the basis that children attending the school would have the option of Catholic programme provision if that is what they so wanted. In a sense, there was a scenario there where the children going to that school, commencing from the junior infants, had the option of either enrolling from a multidenominational or a Catholic provision perspective. It is nearly the reverse of the scenario generally. When you look across at the Catholic schools generally, the default is that pupils go to the local school and have to put their hand up if they want to opt out. The model in this particular school, which is an interesting perspective, is looking at more an opt-in type of arrangement and not making the automatic assumption. It is an interesting comment and it relates to a Gaelscoil as well.