Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to end the baptism barrier; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2009/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I believe that it is unfair that preference is given by publicly-funded religious schools to children of their own religion who might live some distance away, ahead of children of a different religion or of no religion who live close to the school.

I also believe that it is unfair that parents, who might otherwise not do so, feel pressure to baptise their children in order to gain admission to the local school and I intend to reform the school admissions system in relation to the role that religion can play in that process.

I have set out four possible approaches for dealing with the issue, in primary schools in the first instance, including:

- A catchment area approach, prohibiting religious schools from giving preference to children of their own religion who live outside the catchment area ahead of non-religious children who live inside the catchment

- A 'nearest school rule', allowing religious schools to give preference to a religious child only where it is that child's nearest school of that particular religion

- A quota system, which would allow a religious school give preference to children of its own religion in respect of only a certain proportion of places, meaning that the remaining places would be allocated based on other admissions criteria – proximity to the school, lottery etc.

- An outright prohibition on religious schools using religion as a factor in admissions, meaning that all places would be allocated based on other factors. Within this approach, there is capacity to allow religious schools to require parents or students to indicate some support or respect for the ethos of the school.

I am also mindful of the need to avoid possible pitfalls and unintended consequences with each of these approaches, including most importantly possible impacts on minority religions and on the wishes of Protestant, Jewish, Islamic and other communities to be able to run schools in accordance with their ethos and admit children from their communities to attend those schools.

Other possible consequences to be avoided include possible breaches of the constitution, technical and administrative difficulties impacting on the capacity to effectively run the system of over 4000 schools and the possibility of creating 'postcode lotteries', such as other countries have experienced, resulting in pronounced divergence in the quality of schools in more advantaged compared to less advantaged areas.

I will be commencing a short, 10-12-week process of consultation, on this issue and I am interested in hearing the views of the groups who stand to be impacted by changes as well as any members of the public with views on the issue. After that I will progress to develop and implement measures to deal with this issue.

These issues should be dealt with on a separate track to the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, shortly to progress to Committee Stage. This view that the two issues should progress on separate tracks was passed by a large majority of the Dáil in a motion last June.

The Admissions Bill includes a series of practical common-sense reforms to the process of admissions to schools, commands broad support across the Dáil, and is on target to be enacted in the coming months.

The issues involved here are complex and potentially controversial, and by linking them in with the Admissions Bill the danger is that the Admissions Bill would be substantially delayed as these issues are worked out.