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

Other schools prioritise Gaelic football. That is part of it. This is not simply about religious ethos. While I accept that there is an issue here which must be solved and while I cannot support the Solidarity-PBP Bill, neither can Fianna Fáil support the Minister's amendment for the simple reason that we have already had hearings in the Oireachtas committee and a public consultation. Fianna Fáil has set out its particular solution to this problem and it is about time the Minister put forward his. People have been spoken to and given their views. We have heard from everybody at this point, as has the Minister on foot of the public consultation. It is about time Fine Gael and the Government put forward their views and let the public know what their position is so that, together, the Oireachtas can come up with a solution.

Our focus in Fianna Fáil is very much on protecting minority faith schools. There is no doubt that if Solidarity-PBP's Bill were passed, minority faith schools and their particular ethos would cease to exist. They would be lucky to have any members of their own faiths attending given their extremely wide catchments. They draw in children from all over. If the Bill were passed, they would more than likely have to operate a list and that would inevitably restrict them to local people who might not have particular link to the schools. It is very important to recognise the role of minority faith schools.

We must also recognise the entitlement of parents to send their children to Catholic schools if they so wish. The entitlement exists in the UK also and is not unique to Ireland. An Italian law has been upheld in the European Court of Human Rights which allows crucifixes to be displayed in schools. While that is not where I want to go, the point is that there is a religious aspect to education in many parts of the world. It is simply a fact. As the Minister pointed out in respect of one of the schools in Deputy Coppinger's constituency, it is something parents have sought. The role of the Oireachtas is to bring everyone together. The children of the nation are equal and the system is funded by the State. We must bring all competing interests together to ensure that children go to their local schools while also ensuring that the ethos of those schools is protected. We must ensure that parental choice exists.

A related reason as to I want this dealt with and on foot of which I am not supporting the Bill is that there is too much focus on educational legislation. We need to settle these issues and get them off the table so that we can move on to focus on what is most important in education, namely, resources, getting more classrooms and reducing the teacher-pupil ratio. All of this legislation should be dealt with. Those provisions which need to be dealt with should be passed as soon as possible to allow us to move to the real focus, which is money to fund our schools.

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