Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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910. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on a matter (details supplied) regarding national schools' deeds of variation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20807/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The majority of school buildings in the state are in private ownership and under denominational patronage. When state monies were provided to facilitate building works to school property owned by a third party, a legal mechanism had to be put in place in order to protect the State's interest. This was known as a Charging Lease or Declaration of Trust. These leases protect the Minister's capital investment in the school property and require that the property be used as a school for a set period.

As a result of negotiations in the late 1990's on the reconstitution of Boards of Management, an agreement was reached whereby patrons agreed to cede representatives on the Boards of Management in lieu of the Department agreeing to insert a Deed of Variation into the existing property lease. The objective of this Deed of Variation is to provide security for the denominational ethos of a school in cases where a patron or trustee owns the property. Discussions have taken place with the relevant patron bodies over the years to obtain a mutually acceptable solution which meets this objective and these discussions are ongoing.

The Deed of Variation refers to a change in the terms of a charging lease or Declaration of Trust. With regard to admission policies, irrespective of property or Charging Lease arrangements, 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.

Existing equality legislation, which outlaws discrimination in relation to the admission of a student, makes provision for exemptions to apply 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 primary or post primary school whose objective is to provide education in an environment that promotes certain religious values may admit a student of a particular religious denomination in preference to other students. The legislation also provides that such a school 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.

The objective of the recently published Education (Admission to Schools) Bill is to provide an over-arching framework to ensure that how schools decide on who is enrolled and who is refused a place in schools is more structured, fair and transparent.

The Bill does not propose changes to the existing equality legislation. However, the Bill provides 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 Bill provides 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.