Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Education and Skills is responsible for dealing with the schools issue and he will do so. I have received invitations or expressions of interest to meet a number of organisations, including the Islamic community. I was invited during the Eid visit some time ago to contact the community, at a time that would be appropriate and convenient, to arrange to attend a community evening that it would like to host. Some of the issues that are likely to be discussed at a bilateral meeting, including education, migration and the recognition of professional qualifications, have been identified in anticipation of such a meeting. Contacts arising from that visit have continued at an official level. An invitation to meet the Jewish community arose in the context of a community visit by the newly elected President Higgins and in the margins of the visit by the Speaker of the Knesset. Obviously, the Jewish community would like to meet the Taoiseach at an appropriate time. It expects that it might take place in the context of a visit to the Jewish museum. Contact has continued with the Humanist Association of Ireland from time to time. The Church of Latter-Day Saints has been in contact with the Department. It is hoped that we will have a meeting at official level shortly. The Church of Ireland has been in contact with the Department. It has suggested that a meeting be arranged in due course to discuss a number of issues. It might be more relevant for it to have meetings with individual Departments, depending on the issue to be raised.

The agreed arrangements are that officials will engage with the churches on the basis that the secretariat for the State, as a partner in dialogue, will be provided by the Department of the Taoiseach. The dialogue will be arranged in a way that does not displace any existing or ongoing consultation or dialogue. Departments and agencies will continue to recognise and include the churches and the non-confessional bodies as part of consultation practices for policy preparation in relevant areas. The dialogue will be open, inclusive, transparent and fully in accordance with the provisions of Article 44 of the Constitution. The dialogue will be capable in principle of addressing any matter of individual or mutual concern. The inaugural meeting took place in Dublin Castle when all of this started in 2007. The Deputy is aware that four meetings - with the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Jewish community and the Islamic community - took place prior to the election and the summer recess. The resumed process involved the Humanist Association of Ireland, the Religious Society of Friends - Quakers, the Baha'i faith, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church and the Orthodox churches. When I get an opportunity to do so, I will be happy to have meetings with the groups and with the group collectively as I did before.

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