Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are elected here to represent all of the people. While I am here, I will always strive to do that fairly. I am a Catholic and I am not ashamed to say that. I believe, however, that all people of other religious views are entitled to those views. I respect their views but I want to be respected, too. Since I came here, however, there has been a continuous onslaught against the Catholic religion and not against any other religion. While I am not saying there should be an attack on any other religion, this racket needs to be curtailed and stopped. Fair play needs to be given to the people we are representing because, when one is hitting at the Catholic religion, one is hitting at an awful lot of people.

The proposal in this Bill is to get rid of the Catholic ethos in all schools. The reason being given is that children have to be baptised before they are admitted to school. In the county of Kerry, from where I come, I have not had one complaint about that from parents, teachers or others. We are glad to have many families, including children, from many other parts of the world, especially in Killarney and Tralee. We have not had one complaint. Neither I nor any other member of our outfit has had one complaint to the effect that children were being deprived of a place or could not gain access to a school because of their not having been baptised in the Catholic religion.

I know there have been many unsavoury incidents in schools in the past. Nuns and brothers were found to be responsible. I would never condone that. The State, however, had a role to play also. In those times, there was a Minister for Education and a Department of Education. They do not seem to get the same blame at all as the people who were involved. In every outfit, one had a boss, and the Minister for Education and the Department in those times were equally responsible for letting those things happen.

I take this opportunity, however, to note that we have to appreciate brothers and nuns who played a very positive role in the education of the people of this country in the past and who do so even in the present. I went to the Presentation convent in Kenmare for a few years and I really appreciate and recognise the great work that was done there by the Poor Clare nuns. I will always think of them and thank them for the time and effort they devoted to all of the children. The treated all of the children fairly and equally.

Many parents hold the Catholic religion very close to their hearts. They still want their children brought up in the Catholic ethos and they make no apology for asking for this or doing it. I recognise the great work being done by management and teachers in all the schools in Killarney, Tralee, Castleisland, Kenmare, Killorglin, Cahersiveen and all the rural schools around the county.

I take this opportunity to mention one school, in Tahilla, where there area only about 20 children. Thirteen of them are of 13 different nationalities and, I believe, they may have 13 different religious views. They are all being accommodated and treated fairly and equally in that school and have been for many years. That part of the country attracts people from many different countries because of its natural beauty and views. Many important people have come to live there and sent their children to the local schools. We appreciate the attention the teachers and management have given to those families all the time.

I raised with the Minister a problem in Kerry in regard to access to schools. Since the last Government and the current one came into office, they have deprived many children in rural communities of the opportunity of attending their own local school.

There are different places like Cordal, Knocknagoshel, Brosna, Kilgarvan, Blackwater, Sneem, Tahilla, Annascaul and Lispole in north Kerry. They are being deprived of the opportunity to go the local school their parents went to because the Government took away the school transport. School transport was promised when the outlying schools in the hills and the valleys closed. An undertaking was given by the Department in 1956 that children would always be transported free of charge to the local central school. I remind the Minister that is not happening. Children in Scartaglin parish who are entitled to go to Scartaglin school have to go another school because free school transport is not available to take them to the school in their own parish which happens to be further away than a school in another parish. They find themselves going to school in the other parish. I ask the Minister and the Government to address that issue because a word is a word and that word was given as far back as 1956 that children from those areas would be taken to their local school free of charge. The Government has reneged on that and I am sorry about that because it has hurt many families.

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