Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Acting Chairman for his indulgence. The next step for the Department is to formulate a response to the report. This has been a useful debate in that regard. I will then bring our response to the Cabinet in order to outline how I propose to proceed formally. My intention is to implement the programme for Government by developing a White Paper on the subject. I will then convene a meeting with the 14 educational partners who have joined us on this journey to outline our thinking. I have already indicated my personal view but the final decision will be up to the Cabinet. It is more appropriate to examine the entire rule book rather than single out rule 68. I accept that rule stands out because of its subject matter but there are other rules which have become redundant. We now have legislation which was not in the Statute Book in the 1960s. A new set of regulations or guidelines underpinned by statutory law will have to be considered.

I am not in a position to answer the meaty question posed by Deputy Coghlan, however. To take the example of the school in Arklow which should be divested, how does one avoid alienating the community that sees it as part of its parish? That is where sensitivity and common sense must apply. If we can get through the process of divestment without undermining confidence or threatening participants in the education system, and do it with sensitivity, the next step in the journey will be much easier. If, for example, a school is identified as an ideal candidate to divest from a Roman Catholic ethos to Educate Together, some parents may claim they brought their children because they wanted them to complete their first Holy Communion and confirmation, and to get a Catholic ethos. As they will be out of it in three years' time, they might fully accept the necessity to move because of the majority view, but still have a difficulty owing to their justification for sending their children there. We could put a time lock on it and say that in three years from now the school will move from a Roman Catholic ethos to Educate Together. That would mean that anybody putting a child on a waiting list for that school will know that the school's ethos will change. A time dimension could be added. I am thinking aloud rather than proffering a formal policy position.

This is the process of discussing the matter with different people at different times. There are many aspects to this, including the teachers. If the teachers end up being surplus to requirements they will be put on a panel for redeployment. In the five primary teacher training colleges, there has to be a way in which not only are they sensitised to world religions as mentioned earlier, but also have a qualification in the teaching of religion that will enable them to be hired by a Roman Catholic school, a Church of Ireland school, a gaelscoil, an Educate Together school or a community national school. We cannot be providing State education at the expense of the taxpayer and producing teachers who are not qualified to teach in all of our schools - that seems self-evident. That has not happened because if 92% of prospective employers are of a particular ethos, a teacher in training will naturally ensure he or she is qualified to teach in a school with that ethos. These things will need to be done carefully and together.

In a matter of weeks the Higher Education Authority will announce the appointment of a three-person body to look at all the third-level teacher education establishments - the 40 or more courses I mentioned and the schools - in order to consider how we can get some degree of rationalisation and integration without throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.