Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The Minister stated that she will get from within the ranks of this House a sufficient variety of views to allow her to make a final decision on progress and reform but perhaps she is overestimating the variation of opinion among Deputies. It is important that she would open the debate to the partners in the education system, namely, parents, school patrons, the churches and other interested parties. I welcome that she has initiated a debate in this House so that we can make our views known. We have waited two years for this debate and I commend her on taking this initiative so soon after taking up her current responsibilities.

Interest in this issue resulted in large part from the controversy that arose from the requirement that children have baptismal certificates to enter certain primary schools. This set an unfortunate tone for the debates that followed but, thank God, that has passed.

The Archbishop of Dublin made an important intervention when he suggested that the church should consider divesting its patronage of schools. While we must recognise that is unlikely to happen in certain traditional places such as small rural schools, reform is already occurring in major urban areas through Educate Together and Gaelscoileanna. I acknowledge the fantastic work being done by the people behind these initiatives. As Deputy Quinn noted, they acted swiftly to rectify mistakes as soon as they were identified.

The increase in the number of Gaelscoileanna throughout the country has brought a significant advance in Irish education, particularly in regard to the language. No distinction is made among children attending Gaelscoileanna, who come from working and middle class backgrounds and include groups which may have stronger views on education at primary level.

I am glad today's debate has not focused on religion as a problem in education. I feared the central question would be faith-based education, whether Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland or non-denominational but, thank God, this has not been the case. I hope the debate will proceed on the basis of community spirit. The most important question is how a child's education can be best delivered by the people charged with this responsibility. We must emphasise the importance of parents, as a child's first educators, and the teachers who provide an education in the absence of parents during the school day. The other issues, such as patronage, churches and bishops, pale into insignificance in comparison.

A headline published today in a national newspaper referred to a church demand for additional payments towards maintenance and the existence of a huge divide.

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