Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, Deputy Thomas Byrne made the point that the issues of concern could have been teased out on Committee Stage. In that sense, I am disappointed the Government has tabled an amendment to the Bill’s passage. While I welcome the fact the Minister has said he is willing to publish the admissions Bill in this term, I do not see any reason the two Bills could not go side by side. It is particularly disappointing the Government tabled an amendment to the Second Stage passage of this Bill.

This is an effort by the Labour Party to make more incremental progress on these issues, which require measured balance. When in government, the Labour Party has always addressed issues of equality. When Dick Spring became Tánaiste in 1992, he gave equality a place at the Cabinet table. The then Minister, Mervyn Taylor, initiated the Employment Equality Act and started work on the Equal Status Act. Those two Acts formed the bedrock of progress on eradicating discrimination across many areas of Irish life. When we came back into government in 2011, we addressed many equality issues, the most obvious being the referendum on marriage equality, which the people, thankfully in their wisdom, opened their hearts to and made a reality.

Considerable progress was also made in the education area. My predecessor, Ruairí Quinn, when he became Minister for Education and Skills in 2011, established the forum on patronage and pluralism. As a result of its recommendations, a system of consulting parents was established wherever a new school was to be provided. This resulted in most of the new schools established since 2011 being multidenominational. He also initiated the divestment programme, which we all acknowledge has gone slower than we would have wanted. However, it did get the support of patrons, including the Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Dublin, in particular, showed leadership on this. It ran into difficulty at local level. When I was Minister, I met with the various patron bodies to see if we could untangle some of these difficulties. I know the Minister has committed to continuing that work, which I welcome. There has been a 43% increase in the number of multidenominational schools and a 54% increase in the number of children attending such schools since 2011.

When I became Minister, I revoked rule 68 which placed religious instruction as the most important subject in schools, irrespective of their ethos. I wish the Minister well in achieving the targets he has set out in increasing diversity in our schools.

Deputy Burton outlined the background to this Bill both in terms of the constitutional provisions and the historic development of schools in Ireland. There is a balance to be achieved. What emerged was not the original intention when the national school system was first set up in the 1830s. In this area, one makes progress incrementally. It is not a system that can be turned around overnight. There are issues of ownership, apart from anything else.

The one issue we are concerned about and want to address is that of parents baptising their children into a religion in which they do not believe. There is something fundamentally wrong about that. This Bill is drafted to address the reason some parents feel forced to take such a course. While all parties agree this is wrong, I have not heard any other practical suggestions in the debate on how to deal with this.

I disagree with Deputy Shortall that this Bill is not doing anything. It is putting in a provision whereby denominational schools cannot give preference to children of that denomination outside the catchment area ahead of other children in the catchment area who are not of that denomination. It is not true to say the Bill is not doing anything progressive.

It is true that 80% of schools are not oversubscribed and, therefore, the issue does not arise for parents applying to those schools. From my experience, there are Catholic denominational schools, many of them in the poorer parts of our cities which are great at being inclusive with up to 30 different nationalities and a wide variety of faiths. However, the problem is where the demand exceeds the number of places. The current situation allows for a school’s admissions policy to give priority to children of the denomination of the school who live outside the catchment area ahead of local children of other denominations or none. This is where the baptism of convenience issue arises.

Catchment does not automatically mean the local parish. In the case of a minority religion, it could, in some cases, cover several counties. It could also specify other like-minded churches. An example was given by the Minister of a Church of Ireland school which takes in Presbyterians and Methodists. This could also be specified within the admissions policy of the particular school. We want to make it absolutely clear that this Bill is carefully drafted to respect and protect the right of minority religions to protect the ethos of their schools. If section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act were abolished, it would not protect the ethos of minority schools.

See this speech in context