Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also think this is a useful interaction. Faith groups are an important part of our social infrastructure and a greater variety of faith groups have established themselves on the island of Ireland in recent times. The growth of the Muslim community and its increased visibility is one example. For that reason, we must address some matters.

As I have said in the past, the role of churches in controlling education is a very important issue so that all faith communities and none will have access to appropriate education and faith training but all have a common curriculum. We touched upon this earlier. If one reads the history of countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands or France, a separation of new migrants from indigenous communities has caused huge problems. Often, after generations, there are people who do not even speak the main language of the country. Separateness is encouraged. We need to think very carefully and have an inclusive curriculum and understanding of what Irishness involves, with a full respect for the expression of religious beliefs and a capacity for religious training in that. One suggestion I made on this matter is that it might be appropriate for the Citizens' Assembly to look at the provision of education into the future to address different demands in order that we do not have demands in the future for particular types of religious education that might be seen as excluding people from mainstream education. It is something that we should have regard to and I would be interested to hear whether these were the types of issues which were touched upon by the Taoiseach in his dialogue with religious leaders of all faiths. The pre-eminence or dominance of one faith in this State, namely, the Catholic faith, is changing. It is anxious to divest some of its schools to allow for a different tapestry of provision. I am interested to hear the Taoiseach's view on this issue. It should not happen in an ad hocway, but we should have a vision of what future education provision might look like.

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