Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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It seems to me the reason for having the exception from the Equal Status Act, and I would support it in certain circumstances, is to ensure coreligionists can attend the school of their choice, so Catholics can go to a Catholic school in so far as they can and members of the Church of Ireland can go to a Church of Ireland school and their places are not taken up by somebody not of their religion. Where a school is undersubscribed this reasoning has no place. The ethos of a school is already protected elsewhere, in the Education Act. The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, CPMSA, made the case first that there are very few cases of oversubscription where the baptism barrier comes in, but there are examples of it in my constituency. Even it would state there are no cases where a school is undersubscribed that somebody should be refused on the basis of religion. I do not see how anybody would support that as long, of course, as the ethos is protected, which I understand it is anyway. I do not think the ethos is protected by keeping the number of students low so they do not pollute it in some way. That strikes me as completely unnecessary.