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

I wish to raise the question of ensuring that our education system reflects the diversity of modern Ireland in the context of yesterday's debate on the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill.

While I welcome the fact that this House voted to remove the baptism barrier as an important first step in improving access to education, I am disappointed that the Government and Fianna Fáil voted down a number of amendments that sought to take the teaching of religion and faith formation out of the school day. It is wrong that children are segregated in the classroom and it is unfortunate that the Government and Fianna Fáil did not support those amendments.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, announced on Monday that he plans to increase the provision of what he claims to be multidenominational and non-denominational schools. I have concerns about his decision to get the education and training boards, ETBs, to head up this process. The areas where these new schools will be located have been identified by the ETBs. Given that the ETBs will be bidding to become patrons of these schools, I think there is a definite conflict of interest here. My real concern about how the ETBs view what most of us consider to be multidenominational education is based on a view that has been expressed within the Department of Education and Skills regarding what multidenominational education means. I have been in correspondence with the Minister and the Secretary General of the Department. That correspondence has revealed the Department's frankly bizarre definition of what it understands to be multidenominational education. When the Secretary General was asked recently about the role of religion in schools, he stated that "[i]t is not unreasonable to expect in a multi denominational school that where the composition of the pupil body demands a Christian ethos to continue, that this is given expression in the life of the school." That is an extraordinary statement for the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills to make. It displays a complete misunderstanding of what multidenominational education is supposed to be. Surely the Tánaiste can see the conflict here. The idea that a State-run multidenominational school should adopt the ethos of the majority religion is fundamentally undermining of the core tenets of multidenominational education. Does the Government stand over the definition of multidenominational education that has been articulated by the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills?

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