Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I support everything Senator Burke stated. He is quite right.

I welcome the fact that the Minister for Education and Skills has responded to the report on patronage and pluralism in primary schooling. While signalling my concern about any excessive attempt by the State to control the flow of information to parents in various urban areas and areas with an oversupply of Catholic primary schools, such as Tuam in Galway and Malahide in Dublin, it is good that parents are to be surveyed and that it will take place in an orderly fashion which will canvass people's opinions on what model of school patronage they want for their area and children. I was surprised and concerned to read in The Irish Times today that town hall meetings and activities that might whip up a media frenzy are to be prohibited. I was also surprised to read in the same article that no public meetings will be allowed. As far as I know, freedom of association is guaranteed by the Constitution and people are perfectly entitled to organise meetings off their own bat. The State has no business interfering with this. If what this report is referring to is that there will be a particular structured consultation initiated by the Department in consultation with patronage bodies and that this consultation will not involve public meetings, that is the State's business. However, it seems rather bizarre to hear talk of the prohibition of public meetings. People are entitled to meet on their own terms and to discuss issues as they see fit. If this forms part of the context in which people will be canvassed for their views on school patronage, I for one would have no problem with it and would be extremely critical of any attempts to curb it. This of course is rooted in the report on patronage and pluralism, which contained among its recommendations the rather unhelpful statist idea that the flow of information should be controlled. That may be how things work in a statist democracy but not in a genuinely pluralist democracy. The Minister should be on notice that there will be opposition if there is any excessive attempt to curb the flow of information.