Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to give it consideration. The Citizens' Assembly and the Constitutional Convention before it looked at many issues. As such, it is not the case that an assembly could not look at more than one issue in future. It is certainly something the Minister for Education and Skills and I will consider, along with the Government. The Constitutional Convention made other recommendations, including lowering the age at which a person could become President, which the people decided to reject. We should not necessarily assume that everything these assemblies or conventions come up with will be approved by the people. Following through on a Citizens' Assembly's proposal, we will have a referendum next year on extending the right to vote in presidential elections to all Irish citizens, including those living in the North and across the world. We want to have a referendum on that at probably the same time as next year's local and European elections.

The Government has a policy on school patronage. We believe in diversity and choice in education and educational patronage. My view is that diversity should include the Catholic Church and other churches and religions whereas some would argue for a purely secular education system. There is room in our education system for different forms of patronage, including the Church of Ireland, the Catholic Church, other religions, Educate Together and, of course, Gaelscoileanna. I am not entirely convinced we should move from a model of diversity to one in which everything is exactly the same. That is something that could be considered. We have committed already to an additional 400 multidenominational and non-denominational schools by 2030. We also have a system now to survey parents on the patronage of new schools. In my own area, people in Tyrrelstown decided they wanted a Catholic secondary school whereas in another part of the constituency, they decided they wanted an Educate Together. That might not be a bad model either.

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