Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

I thank Dr. Manning for his address. It has been a good opportunity for Senators to raise a wide range of different human rights issues. I would like to hear his view on an important issue in the education system, namely, the role education has in promoting understanding and respect between children of different faiths and cultures. Over the past ten to 15 years an increasing number of children have come to Ireland from all over the world, which has been incredibly positive. When one visits schools one sees flags from all over the world. Different national days are celebrated and children have a level of understanding of other faiths, languages and cultures that, even though I am not very old, I did not have when I was in school when everyone had the same local background. That has been possible because, while the majority of our primary schools have a religious patron, they have increasingly accepted children of all faiths and none and adapted to make them feel at home. There is an obvious need for more diversity.

We need to reform the current system to respect the desires of parents who do not want their children to go to a school with a strong emphasis on one particular faith. At an early stage in his new job the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, said he wanted to see up to half of schools move away from Catholic patronage. There is a risk that we will end up with a situation we have luckily avoided so far, namely, religious segregation where Catholic children go to one school and others to another. Such a situation would create social problems which our education system has helped us to avoid over recent years.

One way we can overcome that is through the community national school model the previous Government piloted. Children of all faiths and none are educated in one school. If churches want to send someone to the schools teach children about a particular faith they can, but other children can follow a mixed secular curriculum.

Dr. Manning has an understanding of how other countries have dealt with this issue. I would like to hear his views on whether choice and diversity needs to be accommodated by Catholic, Protestant and Muslim children attending different schools or is best accommodated in one environment where children learn about and have respect for each other that will, it is to be hoped, prevent the social problems we have seen in other jurisdictions where segregated education has caused other difficulties.