Seanad debates

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

2:30 pm

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad Senator Lorraine Higgins brought up the issue of education. I call for a debate sooner rather than later, with the Minister for Education and Skills coming in and giving an account of the stewardship of the Department of Education and Skills. We have had media item after media item about parents allegedly being told to baptise their children in order to get into Catholic schools, without any evidence of this ever happening actually being produced. It would be wrong for parents to engage in that. It would be unfair on them, on their children, on the school and on the community that provided the school. What is going on here is that the Department of Education and Skills has failed continuously over the years to ensure that schools have adequate places. I happen to know that Christian schools want to provide an education for all who want to be in that school, so why should they be blamed when the Department of Education has not provided them with the facilities they need? They cannot simply magic up an extension on the spot.

I heard last week from a parent who sent me a very eloquent message about her frustration that she could not get her children into a secondary school in east Galway. About 100 children got a letter to say there was no room for them. She said she wanted a Catholic education for her children. She appreciated this product, but she was not in the parish. She was not complaining about the criteria, because there have to be criteria, but she certainly was complaining about the abject failure of the Department of Education and Skills. We must not let those who are against denominational education and their friends in the media let the Department of Education and Skills hide behind this scare issue about baptism when in fact it is its failure to provide places for children, whatever kind of education they want, that is at fault.

Finally, I was saddened by both Senator Norris's and Senator Bacik's comments on the abortion ruling in the North of Ireland. What we are seeing here is the corruption of law, the corruption of the human rights community deciding that some vulnerable human being are outside the pale for human protection. The lack of consistency was also interesting. Senator Bacik wants open season, in accordance with the law, on unborn children, while Senator Norris wants it to be okay to contract with vulnerable women for the purchase of their bodies in sex.In each case there is a failure to see the full picture. One must be consistent when one talks about human rights and human dignity. In that regard, we can take a leaf out of Senator Ó Murchú's book today. He set the tone for that need to intervene in the world in a way that never does harm but that seeks to deliver peace, reconciliation, justice and, above all, the protection of the most vulnerable.

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