Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It affected the quality of my education and I do not mind saying that. I think that is true of many schools, although not all because many schools seek to be accommodating. I know of children who have been turned away from schools because they were not of an appropriate religion and of others who were put very far down waiting lists. That happens. The opt-out mechanisms that are in operation, as the report has pointed out, are unsatisfactory. This was pointed out to the advisory group by numerous stakeholders. We need to bear in mind the context within which the advisory group has produced its report and the context in which the Minister, Deputy Quinn, rightly commissioned the report in the first place, which is that Article 42.3.1° of our Constitution provides that, "The State shall not oblige parents in violation of conscience and lawful preference to send their children to ... [a] particular type of school designated by the State." In a system where more than 2,800, or 90%, of the 3,200 national schools across Ireland are Catholic-run, there is clearly not any excessive pandering to the non-religious minority who, according to the recent census, now comprise-----