Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

On 10 March last, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination did not issue a judgment imposing an obligation on the Irish State to promote the establishment of multi-denominational schools. Rather, the committee encouraged Ireland to promote the establishment of non-denominational or multi-denominational schools.

The committee recommended that this matter be addressed along with all other observations made when Ireland submits its third and fourth periodic reports by January 2008. The Department will furnish its response on this specific observation as part of that wider reporting by Ireland requested by the committee.

On the establishment of new multi-denominational schools in recent years, it should be noted that of the 24 new schools granted provisional recognition in the past three years, 12 are under Educate Together patronage. Of the other 12 schools granted provisional recognition, six are Gaelscoileanna, five are under Catholic patronage and one is under the patronage of the Church of Ireland.

The procedures for establishing new schools are extremely fair and transparent. All potential sponsors of schools, whether the patron be one of Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Jewish faith or one such as Educate Together or the Gaelscoileanna movement, are treated on an equal basis. The criteria and procedures for the recognition of new primary schools were revised in 2002, based on the recommendations of a report of the Commission on School Accommodation, on which Educate Together was represented.

Applications for the recognition of new schools are assessed by an independent advisory board on the basis of the facts provided by the patron body in support of the case for the new school and the likely demand for places. Schools are granted provisional recognition and permanent recognition follows when long-term viability has been established on actual enrolments over a period.

The Department has made a number of changes in recent years which have made the provision of accommodation for new schools much easier. One of these changes, which was strongly welcomed by Educate Together, was the abolition of the local contribution to the building costs for State-owned school buildings, which had cost up to €63,500 per school. Other innovations include the development of the design-and-build model to provide permanent accommodation much faster, as in the case of the new Educate Together school in Griffeen Valley, Lucan, which was designed and built in under 13 months.

The position on annual funding is that my Department is engaged in discussions with Educate Together. The provision of some additional funding in 2005, to meet the immediate issues of concern to Educate Together, is under discussion along with its longer-term needs. The level of funding my Department provides to Educate Together as a school management body is on a par with that provided to Foras Patrúnachta na Scoileanna Lán-Ghaeilge, the Church of Ireland Board of Education, the Islamic Board of Education and the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education.

See this speech in context