Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On my amendment, if the Minister insists on religious instruction taking place during the school day, he will definitely need to set guidelines. I have worked in schools. I do not know how many the Minister has been in while religious instruction is happening. It happens on an ad hocbasis and is simply not good enough. It is not fair on students, teachers or parents. It is a timetable hazard and a nightmare for a principal. There are many scenarios. There are children who are not participating in religious instruction sitting at the back of the classroom. There are disciplinary nightmares for the teacher and children are listening to religious instruction as they try to study. There are schools which decide pupils can go to the library while religious instruction is taking place. Who supervises them? Sometimes they are not supervised. Who is the teacher who draws the short straw and has to do that duty instead of teaching his or her own subject? There is the situation where students study other subjects. This happens too in the case of Irish. Sometimes, in some schools, there are more students who are not taking Irish and there are no guidelines whatsoever for the schools on how to deal with the issue. It becomes a study class, which is completely unfair. Schools need guidelines. The Minister is leaving it up to schools, with some doing it right and some doing it wrong. If he insists on religious instruction taking place during the school day, guidelines are needed.

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