Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I made the point to the Deputy that while the patron has overall responsibility for the ethos of the school, the implementation of child protection guidelines are primarily the responsibility of the board of management of each school. The Education Act 1998 makes no provision for the removal of a patron from a school. The Department of Education and Science has issued guidelines on child protection to schools since 1991 and for the past ten years all schools have been obliged to have child protection policies in place.

I am making the point that the Deputy is raising a more general policy issue, which relates to the open policy regarding the patronage of schools and who is involved in the boards of management of schools. A discussion took place in this House several months ago about the need for a forum to reflect the social change in our society and provide modern methods of governance in the future which will involve all stakeholders coming to the table to reflect the diversity in our society.

I have no problem with the policy development which has to take place regarding that. In terms of the current governance of our schools, there is an ex officio reality that bishops of dioceses are patrons of Catholic schools. They have no executive role under our legislation-----

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