Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is admitting divestment has not worked. He needs to take a different approach. For example, there are ten Catholic schools in Tuam, 11 Catholic schools Castlebar, five Catholic schools in Tramore, six Catholic schools and one Church of Ireland school in Trim and eight Catholic schools in New Ross. The Minister is not prepared to support a full stream Educate Together school in any of those towns.

That is a huge breach of faith on the Minister's part. He is operating a policy of protectionism in respect of these schools. In a letter that recently went out to one of these schools, the Minister's Department claimed the intention of the divestment programme is that the establishment of a divested school does not adversely affect existing primary schools in the area. Does the person who wrote the letter not get it? The whole point of divestment is that Catholic schools would reconfigure, free up existing accommodation and make that available to the Educate Together schools.

The Minister has admitted the system has not worked so far. I asked him if he had asked the patrons to reconfigure and to make schools available. If so, what was their reply? Can he answer that question now? He is accepting divestment has failed. Will the Minister come up with an urgent response to the needs of those five schools? The parents are expecting to send their children there this September. The schools are expecting to be fully functioning viable schools that will take in a full junior infants class in September. Will the Minister give a new instruction to those five schools to enable them to continue to grow and thrive and ensure the rights of parents are upheld. For goodness sake, parents have a right to send their children to a tax-funded local school that is of the patronage that respects their wishes and-----

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