Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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446. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will advocate at Cabinet level for the amendment of the Equal Status Acts to give effect to the principle that no child should be given preferential access to a publicly-funded school on the basis of religion as recommended by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission report submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. [3057/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Under the Equal Status Act, schools are not permitted to discriminate in admission on any of the grounds set out in the Act. However the Act contains an exemption which permits schools in which the objective is to provide education that promotes certain religious values, to admit a student of a particular religion in preference to others.

The Deputy will be aware of the many positive elements contained in the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2015, which was published in April of this year, and introduced a number of important changes to make enrolment policies fairer and more transparent.

The issue of the need to amend the Equal Status Act was not a feature of the consultation paper published in advance of the Admission to Schools Bill. When the Oireachtas committee considered this matter, it simply noted that "there is a potential tension between Articles 42 (Education) and 44 (Religion) of Bunreacht na hÉireann, and this poses a particular difficulty when legislating in this policy area." No amendment to the Equal Status Act has been included in the published Admission to Schools Bill.

I have subsequently made clear my view that this is a matter that does need to be reviewed and addressed, and considering the time constraints involved it will need to be a priority for the next Government.