Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be fair to schools under religious control, many operate a very open policy. As I said, only 20% of them are over-subscribed. The remainder admit every pupil regardless of background and many of them do so in a very good way. Perhaps not all meet the very best requirements and we are trying to develop that. We will have a parents and students charter and, under the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016, which is due to proceed to Committee Stage next Wednesday, we will require that schools should specify how they will deal with children who are not of the relevant denomination. We can work with schools that have a denominational ethos to make them a much more positive environment for every pupil and we can also work on more choice and on diminishing the use of religion as a criterion for entry. We have to move on all those issues together.

I have learned that education is very much a community. There are many really strong communities running schools of excellent quality. One has to bring many of those people into the process. One cannot say that one model is to be thrown out in favour of another. For a long time, communities have been running schools and building a community ethos around them. It is a question of trying to change but bring as many people as possible with us. That is the journey that we are on.