Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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503. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will clarify a situation (details supplied) regarding access to school places; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40076/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Government is continuing to provide additional school places to cater for rising enrolments and is simultaneously diversifying the choice of school patronage available to parents. We are experiencing an ongoing increase in school enrolments and in that context the overarching priority has to be to ensure that every child has access to a physical school place. At the same time, it is a priority for the Government to move to a more pluralist system of patronage for our schools. In this regard the patronage divesting process is underway. In addition, the establishment arrangements for all new schools place a strong emphasis on parental choice.

All schools are required to have an enrolment policy and this must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. Under the Equal Status Act, 2000 schools are not permitted to discriminate against an applicant for admission on any of the grounds set out in the Act. However, the Act 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 legislation provides that an educational establishment does not discriminate where the establishment is a school providing primary or post-primary education to students and the objective of the school is to provide education in an environment which promotes certain religious values, it admits persons of a particular religious denomination in preference to others or it refuses to admit as a student a person who is not of that denomination and, in the case of a refusal, it is proved that the refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school. Schools that comply with the requirements of the Equal Status Act do not therefore discriminate on religious grounds.

As you are aware, I published the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill earlier this year. This Bill provides 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 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.

The Bill also 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.