Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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245. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in view of Article 42.1 of the Constitution only allowing for parents to avail of exclusive religious schools where such schools are exclusively privately funded according to their means with no State funding, the reason her Department allows schools in receipt of State funding to exclude children on religious grounds. [5255/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Article 42 of the Constitution provides for the right of parents to choose the form of education they provide or to have provided to their children. Primary legislation gives effect to this right and includes the Education Act 1998 and the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.

It is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998. The enrolment policy must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants.

This Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

Existing equality legislation, which outlaws discrimination in relation to the admission of a student, makes provision for exemptions to apply in the case of single sex schools and in the case of schools where the objective is to provide education in an environment that promotes certain religious values. The Equality legislation provides that any school that has this objective may, where it has more applicants than places available, admit a student of a particular religious denomination in preference to other students. The legislation also provides that a school whose objective is to provide education in an environment that promotes certain religious values can refuse to admit a student who is not of that religion only where the school proves that this refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school.

It is my firm view that all schools should be inclusive. It is with this spirit of inclusiveness that the proposed Admission to Schools Bill is designed. Drafting of the Bill is currently at an advanced stage and the Bill is on the Government legislative programme for publication early in the Spring/Summer session.

The draft Bill does not propose changes to the existing equality legislation. The draft Bill, while including provision for single sex schools and denominational schools to reflect in their admission policy the exemptions applicable to such schools under equality legislation, will provide for schools to explicitly state in the school's admission policy that it will not discriminate against an applicant for admission on the grounds of disability, special educational needs, sexual orientation, family status, membership of the traveller community, race, civil status, gender or religion. The draft Bill will also provide for schools to publish an enrolment policy which will include details of the school's arrangements for students who do not want to attend religious instruction.

The Bill and its associated regulations should see improved access to schools for all pupils and ensure there is consistency, fairness and transparency in the admissions policies of schools and in the service they provide to parents.