Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's question on dialogue, there is continuing dialogue on ensuring pluralism within the education system. Let me refer to a specific example. With the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Dr. Paul Colton, and Mr. Owens of Cork Education and Training Board, we have in Mallow, where a small Church of Ireland school closed, fashioned a new model that will create a precedent for an education and training board to join a Church of Ireland school in creating a brand new school. What we are talking about is ensuring the recognition of the faith and the right of those with that faith to educate their community accordingly. We must try to ensure there is a model, or models, to allow this to continue.

It is worth noting that there are 194 primary schools with a Protestant or Presbyterian ethos out of a total of 3,146. Based on the enrolment figures for September 2013, nine of those have one teacher, 73 have two teachers and 36 have three or more. Therefore, there is recognition of the community. There is no question about that. It is a matter of how we apply lateral thinking in coming up with solutions when numbers are decreasing in individual schools to such an extent that we need to consider new models.

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