Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Outside the count centre in Citywest on the day we waited for the results of the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, the Taoiseach and I had a brief conversation about the likely result. I suggested to him that one consequence of the result was that we needed to move forward to the complete separation of church and State and he replied that we would leave that conversation for another day. That day has come and, indeed, well passed. In the Taoiseach's conversations with church leaders, particularly of the Catholic variety, what has he said to them? What is he doing to accelerate the divestment programme, which was much lauded by the former Deputy, Mr. Ruairí Quinn, in 2012 and which was intended to do something about the fact that 90% of schools in the country are controlled by the Catholic Church?

Since that much-trumpeted announcement of the divestment programme, a grand total of 11 schools have been handed over, while there was only one last year and ten in the few years before that. Divestment, therefore, is not happening. In this day and age, in the aftermath of marriage equality, the repeal of the eighth amendment and everything that signifies, which the Taoiseach and everyone else in the House knows, the time has well passed to transfer control of schools from the hands of the Catholic Church - or at least from the extent where 90% of them continue to be in its hands. What is the Taoiseach doing about that and what has he said to church leaders about it? It is just not happening.

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