Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Those of us who engaged in mixed marriages in this country had a particular difficulty in deciding where our children would go to school and where they would be accepted. I was very lucky that the Protestant population going to Kildare Place National School in Rathmines was diminishing in numbers with the result that there were openings for non-Protestant children. I was very lucky in that period that my children could attend a Protestant school which was the faith of neither my wife nor I. I am very conscious that when that school became very popular, people actually decided they were Protestant even though they were not practising Protestants. Many of them attempted to produce proof that they were Protestant even though they were not in order to get their children into that school. That is comparable to those people forced against their wishes to baptise children when they are agnostic, atheist or have other reasons not to baptise the child. Imagine how the Muslim community must feel if they are told or suspect that they should have their children baptised in order to access a school in their locality. I praise the Roman Catholic Church, which operates the schools in my constituency, particularly Warrenmount school in the inner city. It has more children from diverse communities than one could imagine, many of whom are Muslim. The imam of the Blackpitts mosque sends his children to that school. I congratulate Synge Street school, which accepts many children from diverse communities and has not asked for baptismal certificates to be produced. These schools are low demand schools within the Catholic community and, therefore, it is only by the grace of God there are facilities there for the adjoining community, just as I was able to benefit from the diminishing number of Protestants in the Kildare Place school.

As a secularist, I want to see every child going to State-run schools. Religious beliefs can be more than adequately catered for outside school surroundings. When it comes to education, the United States has a very positive policy. Why segregate children in a multicultural society at a tender age when they should naturally be making friends from across the cultural divide, whether Indian, Muslim or Hindu? Is that not the beauty of multiculturalism?

The Minister of State will not change the law here tonight. I want to put down a marker that the State is at a crossroads. There are tell-tale signs. The Archbishop of Dublin has made progressive comments. He seems to be implying that there are forces at play within the Roman Catholic Church that will not concede the surplus schools they have. However, that is a problem for them and I will not enter into that debate. In those schools that have accepted children of other faiths, the Roman Catholic Church is not suffering from the effects of this diversity, for example in Drimnagh Castle school, where the diversity is spectacular. I ask the Government to implore the Roman Catholic Church to recognise how offensive it is to ask people to produce baptismal certificates in order to gain access to schools.

There are lessons to be learned from Paris, Crossmaglen and other vicious societies and events such as those in Kano province in northern Nigeria, Somalia and Kenya, and from how terrorism is dividing Catholic from Protestant and the Christian south from the Muslim north. There is every reason to believe that if this society is to be a shining light and sustain itself as a multicultural society, we must insist on children in the State sharing the same classroom. That means it is not just a Roman Catholic issue. Why should Protestant children go to Protestant schools? Why should Jewish children go to Jewish schools? Why should Muslim children be isolated in their schools? If we are a multicultural society, we must compel the State to allow children, during the most formative years of their lives, to mix, understand cultural diversity and grow up in a society that welcomes and embraces all children.

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