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

First of all, I welcome the debate. Maybe I should mention the backdrop to this. As Members know, when this Bill was originally introduced to the Dáil the issue of religion was not addressed. Perhaps contrary to Senator Gavan, I believe that diversity in religion is welcome and that parents should have the right to choose the type of education that they want. It is a strength of our community that parents want to see their children brought up in their own faith. I think that is something to be welcomed and to be supported insofar as possible.

However, what I see as totally unfair is a situation where a growing number of children have parents who are of no faith, do not wish to see their children raised in a faith and do not have the options of access. Some 95% of schools are denominational schools. Only one out of 20 is otherwise. I am ensuring that in 19 out of the 20 schools religion will not be used as a test in admission, so that those schools which are State-funded have to have rules that accept admissions. I think it is frankly unfair that parents should feel obliged to have their child baptised, or that a local child should find that a child from a long distance away is selected ahead of them.

There is a separate discussion on how we achieve diversification of patronage. I have taken initiatives to pursue a more diverse patronage. I have set a target of 400 schools to be non-denominational or multi-denominational by 2030. However, in order to get to what we have today I had a public consultation and invited submissions. I then sat down with all of the stakeholders and could not get agreement on a compromise solution. There were a number of proposals before the Dáil that considered confining religious priority just to catchment areas. I did not believe that was an acceptable way to move forward. I am signalling on Committee Stage and providing here that religion will not be used in 19 out of every 20 schools.

I would defend the need to protect minority religion schools. There is nothing wrong with having Church of Ireland or Presbyterian schools. If a parent wants their child brought up in a school of the ethos of the Protestant tradition, I believe that should be supported. If I did not do what I am doing here, that is, providing an exception for minority religion schools, those minority religion schools would be filled with children who were not of that tradition. They would cease to be a school of that tradition in any real sense. Perhaps this is a different philosophic approach to that of some Senators. I am trying to ensure that in this legislation we satisfy parents and their children to the maximum extent possible, bearing in mind the point from where we are starting. No one would have chosen to start from a situation where 19 out of 20 primary schools are denominational. That does not reflect Irish society today. However, I think we have to proceed by way of the approach that I am adopting, to show that we can progressively respond to a changing Ireland. Part of a progressive Ireland is being able to have minority religion schools within our system, and to value and recognise the strength that those schools bring to our tradition. Certainly I see them as of value, and I am keen to protect them.

A Senator made the point that this is unfair to the Catholic Church. I do not believe so, because it is essentially the case that a parent who is Catholic and wants to see their child raised in a Catholic school has 18 out of every 20 schools to choose from. They will have the opportunity to have their wishes met in the vast majority of cases. On the other hand, a child of a Protestant or Jewish tradition does not have that range of choice. There is likely to be only one or a small number of schools in their locality, or indeed in the wider regional area, that might cater for their needs. It is proportionate, in my view, to allow a parent who wants a child to be brought up in such a tradition to have priority access to a school that offers that ethos. I have tried to balance the conflicting desires of parents, parents of the Catholic faith, parents of minority religions and parents of no religion at all. That is the thinking behind this, and I would have to say that consultation, bringing people with us and getting acceptance for this is an important part of the education system. That has been done.

I did not conduct any such discussion in respect of secondary schools or post-primary schools. This is where I saw the problem. This is the problem that was brought to my door by concerned parents. At second level there is a different situation.Catholic schools represent roughly half of the schools. There is far greater diversity in the post-primary area, and more choices are available to people. Bearing in mind the importance of introducing reform that is fair to everyone, I have taken care around consultation and the development of a proposal I believe has achieved broad acceptance and is, I believe, seen as a progressive step forward. The suggested next step, the Senator advocated, is to ensure that no school can use religion in any circumstances as a basis to refuse admission on the enactment of this legislation. We have not consulted around certain other elements of the Equal Status Act, including the section which permits a denominational school to refuse admission where it is proved that the refusal is necessary to maintain the ethos of the school. That is a very high bar, and to my knowledge it has never been used. It would only be possible to invoke it if it was proven that an individual student was hostile to the ethos of a particular school.

We are trying to accommodate, as fairly as possible, the diverse needs of our parent and pupil populations. This will evolve, of course, and we have to drive on with our patronage diversification projects. We also have to evolve policy. In this Bill I am also requiring schools to set out in their admissions policies how they will accommodate children who are exercising a constitutional right not to attend religious instruction. I have also indicated to schools operating under the mutli-denominational education and training board, ETB, banner at second level that they have an obligation to talk to the parents of pupils about what the parents want and to provide a real curricular option for children at second level in those schools as an alternative to religion. We are proceeding to introduce reform on a broad range of fronts, but I cannot accept the proposals the Senators are putting forward in respect of sections 28 and 51.