Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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358. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether there is a potential conflict of interest in his new reconfiguration plan for patronage divestment (details supplied); the arrangements his Department has in place to mitigate the effects of conflicts of interest. [34878/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that on the 30th January, 2017, I announced new plans aimed at providing more multi-denominational and non-denominational schools across the country, in line with the choices of families and school communities and the Programme for Government commitment in this area.

This process will involve the Education and Training Boards in the initial phase, as the State’s local education authorities, identifying areas where there is likely to be demand for greater diversity and they will work with pre-school services to establish evidence of this demand among the cohort of pre-school parents.

I believe that the Education and Training Boards, as the State’s local education authority, is precisely the right organisation to undertake the consultation with pre-school parents in this process. One of the criticisms of the last process was that it did not take sufficient account of local communities and local stakeholders. The ETBs, as statutory education authorities, present in every county, with representation from local groups on their boards, are ideally placed to carry out this process.

There will then be discussions between individual ETBs and the existing patrons/landowners concerning the possible transfer of schools to accommodate this demonstrated demand for diversity.

The protocols surrounding how the surveys will be carried out will be carefully designed by the Department of Education and Skills, and each ETB will submit a report to the Department showing the results of the surveys, including details of how the surveys were carried out in accordance with the protocols.

This new process for supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local families is based around principles of transparency and cooperation. Therefore, there will be a very substantial level of consultation of local communities in the process, through the requirement for the existing patron to consult with local community and school interests in proposing to transfer patronage of an existing school to an alternative patron body. In that process, the existing patron will also take into account proposals from all prospective multi-denominational patrons that wish to be considered. The reconfiguration process for primary school patronage will be open to application from all patrons offering multi-denominational or non-denominational school models.

It is important to acknowledge the voluntary nature of these transfers, given that the current patron is in most cases the owner of the land on which the school stands. My Department will develop protocols on patronage transfer with existing patrons to ensure that school and local communities and prospective patrons are fully consulted before a decision is made. I am confident that this process will respect the views of all parties - parents, local schools and communities and patrons.

I would point out that the previous model of divestment yielded only a very limited number of schools for transfer to multi-denominational patrons (10 since 2013). I look forward to working constructively with all education stakeholders and patron bodies in this important endeavour and I would ask all parties to put aside sectional or self-interest in pursuing the national objective of providing greater diversity of school provision in line with the choices of parents, families and school communities.