Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cummins and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. They have a long track record in this area.

From a Labour Party perspective, I wholeheartedly welcome this motion. It addresses an issue that was close to the heart of our former education spokesperson, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who very much championed it in a cold place when his was a lone voice calling for greater divestment of school patronage in this country.

Before I talk to the frustrations, and the motion presents the frustrations felt by many parents very well, it is important to state that there has been some progress in some parts of the country, particularly in my constituency of Dublin Central where, in recent years, two new Educate Together schools were established on the border between Dublin North-West and Dublin Central, Grace Park Educate Together National School and Dublin 7 Educate Together National School. We have a new Gaelscoil, Scoil Áine, under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta. We have a ground-breaking secondary school, a product of a collaboration between Educate Together and the education and training board, in Clonturk Community College, of which I was proud to be a board member. It is important to note that that took a long time and the leadership of a small number of fierce parents. But for their tenacity and persistence - I am thinking of Anne Phelan and others - we would not have that school today. Cabra Community College, which is a different type of school, also came out of a grassroots campaign in 2019, of which I was part.

This was a small number of parents who were utterly dismayed at the lack of co-educational secondary school offerings within Dublin 7. They wanted a co-educational school that was also multidenominational, if possible. Cabra Community College had a very long and proud tradition in Cabra but had very small numbers. We ultimately saw this school transformed into the school it is today. The numbers coming in are growing and the ETB and Educate Together are in an effective partnership to grow the school. There has been some progress but it is critical to understand and acknowledge that there is great frustration in many parts of this city of Dublin and right across the country.

When talking about choice in the context of education, we have typically associated it with the call for divestment and more multidenominational education but it is important to say we should also consider choice in the context of co-educational education, an teanga Gaeilge in the context of bunú Gaelscoileanna agus Gaelcholáistí, and children with additional needs. There are children across this country who should be in reading schools, who are in the first percentile and who are eligible for such schools but who are being told by the Department of Education that they need to remain within mainstream schools. A number of parents have come to me to say they believe their child would thrive in a special reading school but is being denied that choice. My colleague, Deputy George Lawlor, spoke last week about how there is only one special school in the whole of Wexford. The area of additional needs is very complex. That is why there is an issue in trying to match children to places. However, there is far too little choice with regard to additional needs and ensuring those needs are met.

Maidir leis an teanga Gaeilge, tá an t-ádh againn i mBaile Átha Cliath Láir go bhfuil dhá Ghaelcholáiste, Scoil Chaitríona agus Coláiste Mhuire, i mBaile Átha Cliath 7 agus Baile Átha Cliath 9 ach is amhlaidh go bhfuil an-éileamh ar Ghaelcholáistí nua a bhunú trasna na tíre, go háirithe i Baile Átha Cliath 6 agus 8 agus in áiteanna eile trasna na tíre. Tacaíonn Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis an bhfeachtas chun níos mó Gaelcholáistí a bhunú in áiteanna eile sa tír because there is now great demand for education trí theanga na Gaeilge. Frankly, that demand is not being met across the country.

When talking about choice with regard to denomination, I am very clear that this motion calls for multidenominational education and to effectively take denomination out of the school system. That is a position I wholeheartedly support. In the spirit of a true republic, there should be no denomination within any school and we should have community national schools, as we see in many other countries, where religious instruction takes place outside of school hours. However, under our system and the Constitution as it was set out, the logical conclusion is that choice should allow for denominational, multidenominational and non-denominational education. I think of the parents who have chosen to send their kids to the North Dublin Muslim National School in my constituency of Dublin Central. There is obviously also a whole raft of Catholic schools but there are also Jewish and Protestant schools out there. It is important that they have a voice and a say in this conversation. While much of the conversation has been about divesting Catholic schools, there is no doubt but that minority faiths wish to have a voice in this conversation.

There has been a long-standing call for a citizens' assembly on education. My colleague Aodhán Ó Ríordáin spent many years calling on the previous Government to introduce a citizens' assembly on education. However, we now need a convention. I know the programme for Government refers to a convention on education but we need to see something very bold and imaginative. Some 30 years ago, Niamh Bhreathnach established the first convention on education. That was groundbreaking at the time and very significant reforms came out of it. We should go larger than the citizens' assembly model and ensure that all stakeholder voices, the voices of children and youth themselves and the voices of randomly selected members of society are part of that conversation. We need a convention on education but it must be much bolder and more imaginative than anything we have heard the Government propose so far.

We are here because of the enormous frustration of parents. There is also great discomfort on the part of many teachers, as reflected in the INTO survey published this week. The reality is that progress in education has always been painfully slow. I was looking back today and I believe it was in 2012 that the infamous section 37 of the Employment Equality Act was repealed. This effectively exempted schools from equality legislation and allowed them to discriminate against LGBT teachers, unmarried parents and divorced teachers on the grounds that they might undermine the ethos of the school. It is just over ten years ago that this appallingly discriminatory legislation was repealed. Progress is tortuously slow in the education space.

I am reminded of the forum on education that ran from 2011 to 2016 and the campaign for divestment that came out of it, which was spearheaded by Ruairí Quinn. Progress has ultimately been way too slow and insignificant, as we see reflected in the motion. The reason is that most of the power remains with the patrons. The approach the Department of Education has taken to the divestment process has been far too hands-off. For as long as the Department of Education takes that approach to the running of schools in this country, we will not make any progress.

I am reminded of an issue I dealt with in respect of a school in Donegal a number of years ago. A Catholic school wanted to become co-educational. It was as simple as that. The board, the staff and the parents all wanted it but the Bishop of Derry was opposed to it and delayed it for a long period. Section 62(4) of the Education Act makes provision for the board to eventually effectively overrule the patron but the Department of Education provided no support to the school at that time. It is not a widely known part of the Act. The Department needs to take a much more active and robust approach to divestment.

See this speech in context