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

It is important to say at the outset that if this Bill is passed as it currently stands, it will not end religious discrimination in our schools. The purpose of this Bill has been cited in media reports as "seeking an amendment to the Equal Status Act to allow equal access to Catholic schools whether baptised or not". It has to be said that this Bill would do nothing of the sort. It would retain on the Statute Book the legal discrimination against children in circumstances where there is a shortage of local school places for children who share the same religion as that of the school patron. It blatantly puts the interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the interests of children. That is still a Catholics-first policy in anybody's book. Such a policy is not acceptable.

The Social Democrats want to see section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act 2000 abolished, especially for publicly funded schools. There are various opinions on whether this is constitutionally possible. I am aware that Equate recently got an opinion from three senior counsel. I know that Education Equality also received legal advice as well. According to all of that advice, it is possible and constitutionally acceptable to abolish or seriously amend section 7(3)(c) of the 2000 Act. We believe the right course of action at this point would be to test the constitutionality of the abolition of section 7(3)(c). We should proceed not with this Bill, but with legislation to abolish section 7(3)(c). We should let that legislation be tested in the Supreme Court and if we need a referendum, so be it.

Even in its limited provisions, the Bill before us lacks clarity. For example, it does not define the term "catchment area". If schools are defining their own catchment areas, what is to stop them from simply broadening the area to facilitate non-local people who are co-religious over local people who are non-religious?

Neither does the Bill define reasonable access. Who gets to decide what constitutes reasonable access, for example?

The Government proposal is not a solution either. A 12-month delay on this issue is simply a long-fingering exercise. It will mean children enrolling this coming year will continue to face serious discrimination. Moreover, children enrolling for the next school year will face that discrimination also.

We have dwelled far too long on this issue. It cannot be right on any level that State-funded schools can continue to discriminate against children on religious grounds. Doing nothing suits those in favour of the status quojust fine. However, with every enrolment year that goes by, yet another cohort of young children are turned away at their local schools. As legislators, we should be ashamed that we allow that to happen to four and five-year old citizens. This Bill does little to address this discrimination. It is pretending to be something it is not. It is not even a good start. If passed, it would stall real reform for years. As legislators, we have a responsibility to ensure our public education system reflects and respects the diversity of modern Ireland.

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