Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 235: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will confirm that bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, in their capacity as patrons of schools, manage the Irish education system while simultaneously acting as officials of another sovereign state, namely the Vatican; her views on this state of affairs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20776/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is a long-standing feature of our education system that patronage of Catholic schools in a diocese rests ex officio with the person who is Bishop of that diocese at any particular point in time. Accordingly, it is the case that such patrons have other roles in the context of their church functions. The governance structure of our schools is such that, in accordance with the Education Act 1998, the patron of a school does not have a direct role in the day to day management of the school which is a matter for the Board of Management.

The Act provides, inter alia, that it is the duty of the Board to manage the school on behalf of the patron, for the benefit of the students and their parents and to provide or cause to be provided an appropriate education for each student at the school. In addition, under the Act, each Board of Management, in carrying out its functions, is required to do so in accordance with the policies determined by the Minister.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 236: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the private talks between his Department and church authorities on the future management of schools. [20795/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department had discussions on this matter with senior representatives of the Catholic Church. The Catholic School Patrons and my Department agreed that it was essential to engage in planning for change. In order to advance the matter, my Department agreed that it would examine a number of initial locations to see what scope or options might exist for change of patronage in these cases. The particular focus was on identifying a sample number of areas of relatively stable demographics where the establishment of new schools was unlikely to emerge in the foreseeable future and where the provision is exclusively Catholic or where there is very limited diversity of provision at present. The aim is that these areas can then be used to trial the modalities by which the number of Catholic places and schools will be reduced and released for others.

In this context, officials in my Department are currently carrying out an assessment of 10 sample locations where changes to patronage may be warranted, given changed demographic profiles in recent decades. The aim is to complete the assessment in the coming weeks with a view to providing the list to the Catholic authorities for consideration and making the list available publicly.