Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We have 20 minutes; ten minutes for me and ten for Deputy Coppinger. According to the Minister, the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016 is designed to ensure every child is treated fairly and that the way in which schools decide on applications for admission is structured, fair and transparent. It does none of those things. It does not go anywhere near delivering on those aspirations.

There are a couple of elements in the Bill that are to be welcomed as minor steps forward. The fact that denominational schools will have to publish what they do with children who opt out of religious instruction is something. There are no minimum standards attached to that so they could still just let those kids sit in a room on their own but as long as they publish it, it is transparent. It does not deal with the fundamental problem of segregation, discrimination and lack of equality in a school system that is completely dominated by a particular religious ethos. It is somewhat welcome that Tusla and the National Council for Special Education will be able to instruct a school to take a child and not discriminate on the basis of colour, ability or disability. The Bill does not address the key question of the religious discrimination that comes from the fact that more than 88% of our schools are denominational, most of them Catholic, and dominated by a particular religious ethos. They, therefore, fail to give real equality to all children, particularly those of minority religions or who have no religion at all. This Bill completely fails to deliver that equality.

I will come on to the central issue of what this Bill does not do but should do, which is address the baptismal barrier, but before that I will mention briefly the so-called soft barriers, which this Bill also fails to deal with. One of the two major soft barriers in terms of equality for children in the school system is the issue of voluntary contributions, which are an absolute scandal. They act as a barrier and discriminate against people who are less well off. The necessity for voluntary contributions flows from a chronically under-resourced and underfunded education system. The system of voluntary contributions creates, in reality, a tiered education system consisting of schools where parents can afford significant voluntary contributions and those where parents struggle to do so. Such parents are in effect inhibited from sending their children to schools where the demands for significant voluntary contributions are way out of their reach. The Bill fails to deal with that. We should completely ban the entire system of voluntary contributions which are a disgrace and lead to a tiered education system. Similarly, in the area of special needs there are soft barriers. This Bill will say schools cannot formally or explicitly discriminate. There is also soft barrier discrimination in the area of special needs. Schools essentially tell people who try to get children with particular special needs into a school that they do not have the resources to cater for them, they do not have any experience, or there are not enough specialised staff. The signal is sent to the parents of children with special needs that the school cannot take their kid. They cannot actually preclude them but in reality they do. I have a friend of a friend whose child is due to go to school in January. The child has diabetes, which is unusual in young children, and needs special support in school. She has asked four schools if they can cater for her child and the schools have said they cannot do it. Unless the resources, special needs assistants and so on are there, this soft barrier continues to create discrimination against children with special needs.

The big issue and gap in the whole Bill is the complete, total and utter failure of the Bill to deal with the baptismal barrier in a situation where the vast majority of our schools are denominational and where non-denominational or multidenominational schools are massively over-subscribed. My kids were lucky enough to get into DSP in our area, which was the first Educate Together school in the country. My partner had to run from Holles Street hospital when our baby was born to get out to the school to put its name down and even then it was not guaranteed that the child would get in. Hundreds of mothers and parents fail to get their kids into the multidenominational or non-denominational schools. They consequently have to put them into denominational schools where they are segregated, discriminated against, isolated, excluded and made to feel different in a way that completely flies in the face of this Bill's claim it is trying to deliver equality and a welcome on an equal basis for all children. This Bill does not achieve that. It continues to pander to religious denomination of our schools and, therefore, exclude people of minority religions or of no religion.

The key issue is that of section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act which allows that discrimination and barrier to continue. I want to get to the bottom of something the Taoiseach said, which the Minister repeated. I have asked the Taoiseach three times about the legal advice, which he has told the House he has, to the effect that removing section 7(3)(c) would pose legal or constitutional problems. I have asked the Taoiseach that three times after he publicly stated it. Those questions were bounced off to the Minister for Education and Skills, who also never answered the question. We have never seen the legal advice or the reports yet it was cited by the Minister in his speech yesterday that it would cause constitutional and legal difficulties. He said we need all-party Oireachtas committees and a long, delaying, protracted process just like we had on the issue of abortion back in 2011. We had committees and so on and ended up with a rubbish Act called the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act that still makes abortion illegal and discriminates against women's right to have control over their own bodies. It is still not resolved yet that is what the Minister is proposing to do again on the basis of his claim that he has legal and constitutional advice that there are problems. Where is the advice? Will the Minister show me the report and the legal advice? I do not believe he has it. I suspect the Minister and the Taoiseach have been misleading the House, otherwise they would have published the advice. We do not see it. The truth of the matter is the Government - as successive Government have done - continues to kowtow to the domination of the Catholic Church and its control of our schools rather than stand up for them and insist that a system of education funded by the public and taxpayers' money is run publicly, in the interest of all citizens and all children, on the basis of real equality and without any discrimination against minority faiths or those with no faith at all.

If I am wrong, the Minister should show us the legal advice to the effect that there are constitutional and legal impediments. If not, I call on the Minister to move ahead and give us the equality which he claims to want in this Bill but which he completely fails to deliver.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has said the Government is in breach of four UN conventions because of admission policies. I have seen legal advice from Equate and Education Equality to the effect that there are no legal or constitutional impediments. Therefore, I do not believe the Minister or the Government. The Minister had better start telling the truth and stop covering up for the fact that he does not want to end religious discrimination in our schools and that he is continuing to facilitate the Catholic domination of our schools. As long as the Minister persists with this approach and as long as he fails to act on this, he is abusing, neglecting, segregating, excluding and discriminating against young children. It is not fair. It has to end. We want education equality and this Bill does not deliver it.

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