Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for joining me for this conversation. The Joint Committee on Education and Skills has released its report on the Equal Status (Admission to Schools) Bill in which it calls for an end to the baptism barrier. It shows there is ever growing cross-political support for an end to this law. Does the Minister have a response to the report and its recommendations and will he table an amendment to the Bill reflecting that? Since the Minister announced the public consultation on the role of religion in primary school admissions in January, there has been a national conversation on the need for religion to be gone as a discriminatory admission criterion in State-funded schools. We know from research that the vast majority of citizens, including parents with children in school, want it to end. The baptism barrier, which allows State-funded schools to discriminate against children because of their religion or belief, is one of the great inequalities of our time and has no place in a modern, pluralist democracy. The Minister's Department received thousands of submissions in the public consultation on the issue, and I understand the vast majority of those were in favour of removing the baptism barrier. Will the Minister confirm that? One in five people baptised their child to ensure school admission which I think the Minister will agree is problematic. These realities need to be reflected in our education policies. Latest census figures show an Ireland that is very different from when the baptism barrier was created. The 2016 figures show a 73.6% growth in people with no religion, which marks the growth of the largest cohort in society, while 45% of those who identify as having no religion are young adults around my own age, between 20 and 39. They are part of the cohort most likely to have young families and children who are attending school at present or who will be attending in the coming years. These CSO results have to have an impact on how we set our policies and shape our education system. The Minister is aware of these figures because he quoted them. It shows the understanding he has of the changes that are needed in order that school policies reflect the Ireland of today. It is not the job of school admissions policies to dictate to parents the religion in which they should raise their children. The State should not facilitate it. The function of the State is to uphold the right of every child to an education. The Oireachtas is nothing without the people. We are here to support children and young people, not stakeholders. It is through applying the best interest of the child principle that we will see a solution.

I will reiterate my questions. Does the Minister have a response to the committee report and its recommendations? Will he table an amendment to the Bill to reflect those recommendations?