Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputies will be familiar with it because it was debated on both Second and Committee Stages. During the course of Committee Stage I indicated the direction we were taking in our thinking. As Deputies know, in the intervening period I have had consultations on a number of options on which we did not reach consensus. I am of the view and have said publicly that I think it is unfair that preference is given by publicly funded religious schools to children of their own faith who live some distance away, ahead of a child of a different religion or no religion. I also believe it is unfair that parents should feel obliged to baptise their child simply to gain admission to their local school. The amendments have been designed to make it easier for children to access their local school. It is a complex issue because there are many contrary views and there are provisions in the Constitution that have to be respected. I indicated to the committee that I intended to remove the capacity of recognised denominational primary schools, where they were oversubscribed, to use religion as a criterion in their admission process. The amendments I am bringing forward seek to give effect to that intention.

I have also been conscious of the need to ensure children of minority religions can continue to access their primary schools or schools of a similar minority religion. Such minority religions add significantly to the diversity of the options on offer and I respect the desire of parents to have their children educated in their own faith, for which we should provide. I do not believe that, where 18 out of every 20 schools in the primary education system are Catholic, there should be the operation of a provision that gives preference to a Catholic child living a considerable distance away over a local child.

Under the amendments, a recognised primary school will no longer have the protection of the Equal Status Act 2000 if it has as part of its admission policy a criterion that gives a preference to applicants of a particular religion or denomination.

The amendments will, however, allow a student from a minority religion to seek admission to a recognised primary school that provides a religious instruction or religious education programme that is the same or similar to the religious ethos of the student concerned.

In this grouping, amendment No. 137 is the specific amendment which provides for the amendment of the Equal Status Act. The remainder of my amendments in this grouping are consequential to that amendment. I will deal with them as follows.

Amendment No. 2 amends the Long Title to reflect that this Bill will amend the Equal Status Act 2000. Amendment No. 22 is consequential to the amendment of the Equal Status Act and updates the references to that Act in the provision of the Bill that makes clear that an appeal under section 29 will not apply where the grounds of appeal relate to the Equal Status Act.

Amendments Nos. 43 and 44 are also consequential to the amendment I am making to the Equal Status Act 2000. They update the provisions in the Bill which require schools to reflect in their admission statement the relevant provisions of the Equal Status Act. Accordingly, in line with the amendments being made to the Equal Status Act, the Bill will now provide that a denominational primary school will not be permitted to state in its admission statement that it does not discriminate where it gives preference to children of its own faith. A denominational primary school that admits children of a minority religion in accordance with the amended Act will be required to state this in its admission statement.

These amendments will not change the requirement on all denominational schools to set out that they do not discriminate where they refuse admission where such refusal is essential to maintain ethos and the requirement on denominational post-primary schools to set out that they do not discriminate where they give preference to children of their own denomination, as I am not making any changes to those particular provisions in the Equal Status Act.

As I outlined, amendment No. 137 is the amendment which makes the changes to the Equal Status Act 2000. In that regard, it removes, in the case of recognised denominational primary schools, the provision that provides that such schools do not discriminate where they give preference in admission to children of a particular denomination over children not of that denomination, that is, where they use religion as a selection criterion in school admission.

However, it also provides that a recognised primary school does not discriminate where it admits as a priority a student from a minority religion who is seeking admission to a school that provides religious instruction or religious education consistent with the religious beliefs of the student concerned or a religion similar to that of the student concerned. The detail of how this will operate is set out in a new section 7A in the Equal Status Act.

The new section 7A will provide as follows: when making an application for admission to a school, the applicant may provide a statement confirming that the student is a member of a minority religion and wishes to be educated in a school that provides a programme of religious instruction or religious education that is the same or similar to the religious ethos of the student and provides evidence to support the above statement.

A recognised primary school can decide to admit the student in respect of whom the application is made if it is satisfied that the student is a member of a minority religion and that the school provides a programme of religious instruction or religious education that is the same or similar to the religious ethos of the student. In satisfying itself as to whether the applicant is a member of a minority religion, a school must only take into account the statement and any evidence submitted by the applicant.

Schools that admit students of a minority religion in accordance with the provision in the amendment will not be permitted to rank those students according to the particular denomination or religion of the child concerned. However, applicants may be ranked using the school's other selection criteria if the number of such students seeking admission to a school under this provision is greater than the number of places available. For the purposes of this provision a minority religion will be defined as a religion whose membership is not in excess of 10% of the population, established by the census and published by the Central Statistics Office.

In summary, these amendments remove religion as a criterion in school admissions in recognised primary schools while retaining a protection to ensure that a child of minority faith can access a school of his or her faith. A school will be permitted to admit a student on that basis but will not be compelled to do so.

As I stated previously, this is a complex area and there are no easy solutions to the problem. However, I believe that the approach taken is reasonable and proportionate to balance the rights of the three affected groups, namely, minority religious communities, Catholics and non-denominational families and to ensure that no child is disadvantaged. Minority religious communities because of their small size within the overall population could otherwise find it extremely difficult to access schools of their own religious ethos. Unlike Catholic schools and Catholic families, these communities need this protection if they are going to continue to be able to access schools of their own religious ethos. They represent just one out of every 20 schools.

Catholic families will continue to be able to enrol their children in Catholic schools and Catholic schools will be able to protect their ethos, based on the fact that Catholic schools already make up 18 out of every 20 schools and Catholics make up 78% of the population. Non-denominational families will now find that for well over 95% of primary schools, which accounts for all schools except minority religion primary schools which admit children of minority religions, they will be treated on the same basis as all other families in primary school admissions. I hope this commends itself to the House. It has been a difficult issue on which to develop a robust and workable legislative proposal.

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