Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Across the country, there is an increasing mismatch in patronage arrangements for national schools in particular, although it will become a more common issue for secondary schools as the years go on and as the bubble of national school students moves on. The overwhelming focus on patronage divestment during the past five years has distracted from the essential and immediately relevant question of how children from non-religious backgrounds should be accommodated in the existing structures and the rights of all to have freedom of conscience and school admission upheld. Fianna Fáil is very much concerned with it and we published a policy on it before the election.

The Equal Status Act prohibits religious discrimination, but allows schools to enrol co-religionists in preference to members of other faiths when a school is oversubscribed. It is wrong that 20% of schools in Dublin are oversubscribed and they seem to be the most active in applying religious selection criteria. Our difficulty is with the minority faith schools. Some level of positive discrimination is essential to Church of Ireland and other minority religious schools. If we simply delete the provision of the Equal Status Act, those schools could suffer disproportionately. I wonder if the Minister has a view on it.

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