Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

An opt-out is not enough and neither is guidelines on an opt-out because it is a question of what ethos schools have. The CEO of the ETB in Tipperary told ETB school principals that the Christian belief, ethos and spirit of their schools was Catholic and this needed to be addressed in all policies. She recently stood over that claim. The Minister needs to respond to it and clarify whether it is the case. I have a copy of the religious education policy of the Central Technical Institute which is also an ETB school. It states the ethos is Christian and Irish and states: "Our community is a part of the wider community primarily composed of Roman Catholics, and the majority of our students are Roman Catholic, and the ethos of the school reflects this." It continues: "Faith formation is governed by the majority religion, 90% of the pupils being Roman Catholic." It is fair enough if there is religious education but it cannot be faith formation. There cannot be compulsory religious education that in reality is about Catholic faith formation.

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