Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the appointments by the Minister to the expert group, in particular to very much welcome the fact that it will be chaired by former judge and Senator, Catherine McGuinness, who has proven herself an excellent chair on similar expert group reports on very different issues such as the prison at Thornton Hall. I anticipate that the group will conduct its hearings in a thorough and comprehensive manner.

I wish to return to the judgment in the Louise O'Keeffe case by the European Court of Human Rights which both I and a number of colleagues referred to yesterday. We should have a debate, not just on the ramifications of the judgment itself but on its ramifications for other cases. I declare an interest as someone who has represented people in the past who sued national school managers and boards on the same basis as Louise O'Keeffe and whose actions were therefore affected by the outcome of her case. There was a suggestion by her solicitor yesterday that the State should review its attitude or response to the applications made by applicants in similar cases. That is entirely appropriate given the very different decision to which the European Court of Human Rights has come in comparison to the decisions in our domestic courts.

In that vein, could I also ask that we might similarly have a debate on measures the State has taken in recent years to safeguard children in schools against abuse? We touched on the issue previously and we covered various aspects of it. We have debated various items of legislation such as the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act but it would be worth looking at all those matters together.

I ask that we might have a debate on school patronage. Some colleagues yesterday referred to comments by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, over the weekend. He was widely misquoted and misreported. In fact, he was responding to school principals at their conference who asked him about trying to fit the curriculum into the time allotted to them. He pointed out that there is a good deal of time spent teaching religion, in particular in schools of religious faith, especially in years when there is sacramental preparation such as second class when there is preparation for communion. That is a valid point which has been made previously. We do spend a larger amount of time in primary schools teaching religion than in any other European country. All of us agree with the notion of parental choice but when 95% of schools are under religious control and 90% of those are under Catholic control there is very little choice for many parents who would prefer not to have their children receive instruction in a particular faith.