Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator MacSharry in wishing our Special Olympics athletes well. That is an important message to send.

It is hard to take lectures from Fianna Fáil on cronyism.

On a more collegiate note, I thank colleagues for the positive and thoughtful debate in the House last night on the Labour Private Members' motion on measures to improve quality of life in local communities. While a large part of our motion and the debate was about policing it also contained quite a number of important measures and initiatives and I am grateful to colleagues for taking the time to contribute on all those issues which we will follow up with the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

I ask the Leader for a debate on the patronage of secondary schools. We had a debate in this House in conjunction with the initiative of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, on greater diversity and patronage of primary schools. We also had a very good debate on the report of the National Forum on Pluralism and Patronage in the Primary Sector. That process is ongoing and we hope to see transformation of patronage occurring to reflect the greater diversity of the population in the very near future.

There is another important debate to be had about patronage and ownership of schools at second level. Last night, along with many other political representatives and hundreds of people, I attended a public meeting organised in Wynn's Hotel by Educate Together calling for the establishment of a multidenominational, co-educational secondary school in Dublin city centre. There is a huge energy and momentum behind this campaign. Very large numbers of children now graduating from primary schools run by Educate Together throughout the country, and particularly in Dublin, have no equivalent school to attend at second level, the vast majority of second level schools still remaining under religious patronage. There is a real momentum behind this campaign and it would be welcome if we could debate it here. Political representatives from every party and from the Independent groupings attended last night's meeting and spoke in support of the principle of a multidenominational second level school in Dublin. It should be noted also that for the first time Educate Together will open three secondary schools in the State this September but none in Dublin city centre where there is a clear demand for such a school. I ask the Leader that we might have that debate in the very near future.