Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of school patronage because there has been painfully slow progress in this area during the past five years.

11 o’clock

There is now an onus on the Minister to make this a priority issue in the education portfolio. If we are a true republic, we must ensure that our institutions respect and reflect the diversity of modern Irish society. This is true in respect of education in particular. The State has a serious responsibility to ensure that every child has access to a State-funded school in his or her own locality and that the ethos of that school reflects the ethos of the family concerned. A significant number of parents have no choice but to send their child to a school that does not align with their own belief system. Many parents feel they must baptise their children in order that they can be enrolled in a local State-funded school. This situation is entirely unacceptable in this day and age and must be dealt with as a matter of priority.

This week, the Minister appeared to endorse the community national school model, which involves splitting classes and segregating children on religious grounds for part of the school day. This happens because the Catholic Church insisted on a requirement to have faith formation classes and preparation for sacraments during school hours in these schools. We know this thanks to the excellent research carried out by Emma O'Kelly of RTE, who had access to documents obtained under the freedom of information provisions which showed that this was an agreement reached between the Catholic Church and the then Government in 2007. It is incredible that such an agreement was reached only nine years ago.

I have two questions for the Minister. Will he commit this morning to repealing section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act in order to ensure that all children can access their local publicly funded primary school irrespective of their belief system? Will he end this most blatant form of discrimination against our children? Does the Minister accept that the community national school model entails segregation on religious grounds and runs counter to the principles of child-centredness and inclusiveness? If so, why is he endorsing it?

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