Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refer to modern Ireland and the area I represent, and an amount of the area the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on education, Deputy Thomas Byrne, represents, is similarly a very diverse area. The most recent census showed Fingal has close to the highest level of international community. It has the highest growth in diverse communities and in many schools there are children from 30 to 50 different countries. This means those children may be children of people of professed faith, or who are not particularly attached to any faith, or who might classify themselves as humanist or atheist. In Dublin West, we have had to grapple with a situation in which for almost everybody the school of choice for parents is the local school. The local school is the heart of the local community. Understandably, when people get a long-term tenancy, buy a house, as has been the norm over a long period of time in Dublin West, or rent a house long term in the private rental sector, they by and large look to the local primary school to provide their cherished children with education. The heart of the problem is that we do not have great clarity on how people can access their local schools.

The Constitution properly recognises rights regarding denominational education in terms of different religious bodies including, given our history, the Roman Catholic church, the Church of Ireland and other Protestant denominations. However, we have no clarity, and much confusion, as to whether, and in what circumstances, a child whose parents do not profess the faith associated with the particular patron, can access the school. Approximately over 20% of schools are heavily oversubscribed, perhaps due to population growth in an area or because a school is very popular and considered very desirable. In Dublin West, the critical pressures are population growth, shown in the most recent census to be among the highest in Ireland, and the fact that the population is diverse and includes people from many countries.

Notwithstanding the many good and clear elements set out in the Bill, for example, the commitment not to discriminate against applicants on grounds of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, race, membership of the Traveller community or special educational needs, the Bill provides for the exception that denominational schools will continue to be able to prioritise, or refuse enrolments, in accordance with religious denomination under section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act 2000. This is the crux of the issue, and the Minister is not addressing it in the Bill. Our Bill sought to have a balance between the constitutional right to the expression and freedom of religion and religious denomination and the constitutional right of a child not to be discriminated against. The Minister, in the Bill, has decided, as he did with the Labour Party Bill, to park and evade the question entirely.

Equate got legal advice and opinion from a trio of very distinguished lawyers, Dr. Conor O'Mahony of UCC, Dr. Eoin Daly of NUIG and Dr. David Kenny of TCD. They went further in their opinion regarding the issue and set out a case to say there should not be some of the discrimination which is a feature of education in Ireland.

As someone who is hugely involved in the different schools in my area as well as in education in general and having worked in third level education for more than 20 years, my experience has been that the patrons, boards of management, principals and staff of schools are fantastic in terms of seeking to ensure every child at primary or secondary level is made welcome. The Minister for Education and Skills is not providing leadership on the difficult issue of balancing two constitutional rights, namely, the right to denominational and religious freedom and the right of a child to access a local school. Almost everyone who has spoken during the debate has referred to the desirability of a child being able to attend the local school. So far I have not heard from the Minister of any development of his understanding of the issues involved.

One way of addressing this has been through the Educate Together movement. Deputy Shortall and I were deeply involved in its foundation many decades ago. However, not every child will have the opportunity to attend an Educate Together school. We have also had the development of the community national school model under the education and training boards, ETBs. This is a very good model, as are the second level schools and colleges under the ETBs. Many of these schools, including ones in my area, are giving the expensive private schools on the south side of Dublin a good run for their money in terms of leaving certificate points achieved and academic and other successes, be they in debating, sport, arts or creativity. The older private schools are being given something to think about. However, it is still not clear how the ETBs can deal satisfactorily with the children in their care. They have made it clear that religious instruction and a religious and social curriculum will be made available if parents want it. However, what of the child whose parents do not want him or her to participate? I received an interesting letter from a teacher on the issue. The teacher asked what one does with the child. This could occur in a smaller school or one in which the resources are not available to set up direct facilities for the child. Should the child, as happened years ago, sit at the back at the class reading a book while the religious instruction takes place? These issues are difficult.

Most Deputies referred to the issue of parents feeling they have to have the child baptised to enhance their child's chance of getting into the local school of their choice. None of us wants to see, in essence, an educationally forced baptism. If people are being baptised, it should be an expression of religious faith and freedom. It should not be a strategy to ensure a child obtains a place in a local school. This is not a problem in many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas. The further one goes from Dublin or the other big cities, the more local schools are delighted to have additional families registering their children with them. It is a problem, however, for those in cities and towns where there is a strong demand for places as a result of increases in population. I am interested to hear what proposals the Minister has to address the issue of parents being forced to baptise their children when they might otherwise wish not to do so.

The Minister, in his previous role, recognised that Ireland is changing. We are one of the most open economies in the world. We trade right around the world. We now face changes and challenges in terms of Brexit and the President-elect of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. Despite this, here in Ireland we have this educational situation that needs to be resolved. There are many good provisions in the Bill. Many sections are exactly the same, word for word, as what was prepared by Ruairí Quinn and Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, with the two exceptions I have referred to earlier. The Minister needs to tell us what he is going to do about the two omitted sections. There is the section that provided for the appointment of an independent person by the Minister to comply with the Minister's direction on the admissions functions of a school. What will happen in that regard? There was also a provision on the past pupils issue which was to be dealt with in regulations.

I listened with some astonishment to the passion that emerged from the Fine Gael benches about the need to retain access for children and grandchildren of those who had attended private schools. Perhaps we can call these the families' hereditary schools. I know that this was the subject of quite a lot of canvassing. I can understand that people may have a strong personal association with a particular school. A family builds up a relationship with it. We all understand that. It is a positive thing in the development of a school's community. However, we need to address the issue of children not being able to access the local school on a reasonably fair basis.

The Bill's sections dealing with non-discrimination and the declarations about non-discrimination on a whole range of grounds are excellent. Why then the cop-out by the Government? I remember the many discussions I had during the lifetime of the previous Government with Fine Gael Ministers and the Taoiseach on the issue and how we might reach an agreement that would benefit the children of Ireland and bring forward a system that reflects the pluralism in our society. We are proud to have significant foreign direct investment throughout the country. It results in many people from many countries working and living for periods of time, sometimes very long periods of time, in Ireland. If we want to ensure our education system keeps apace with the changes that are happening in society, we have to address these issues. I am sorry to say that the Bill is a cop-out.

This month we had the publication of the report of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which is a merger of two former bodies. It set out a schedule of recommendations on the first page of the report. The first of these recommendations was that the Equal Status Act should be amended to give effect to the principle that no child should be given preferential access to a publicly funded school on the basis of his or her religion. What response, if any, does the Minister have to that recommendation?

There is a whole set of other recommendations, which I do not have the time to go into, but I ask the Minister to respond to the summary recommendations. Will he also respond to the arguments put forward by different groups and bodies, including Equate?

I will finish on this. I saw a reference yesterday to a meeting of a group which had been cancelled in a hotel across the road. That group made very strong statements from a right-wing perspective about what this country should be. I hope the Minister in his approach to the Bill will say this is a pluralist country where we respect people who practice different religions and that we also respect people who do not choose to be involved in religion.

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