Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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753. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the percentage of parents who must seek a change in patronage of a school in order for it to be facilitated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1310/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Government’s objective is to have at least 400 multi-denominational schools in the primary system by 2030 to improve parental choice.  I fully support this commitment and I am working with my Department in this respect.  The Schools Recon?guration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local families, has been developed in order to accelerate the delivery of multi-denominational schools across the country. 

As the Deputy will be aware, in March 2022 I announced that arrangements are being put in place in a number of towns and areas of cities that have no multi-denominational primary schools to identify potential schools and to engage with school authorities, school staff and the school communities with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos, where there is sufficient demand for this.

The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference (representing the Catholic patrons) and relevant Bishops have confirmed their willingness to engage and co-operate fully with the Department in seeking to facilitate a more diverse school patronage in these towns and cities. The pilot areas are:

My Department has made available a number of independent facilitators across the pilot areas to work with the school patron and relevant school authorities at a local level to engage with school authorities, school staff and the school community with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos, where there is sufficient demand for this.  This process is about providing information and engaging with, and seeking feedback from, the school community.  The voice of the parent and school community is important in the context of a decision to change to a multi-denominational ethos. It is not intended that specific weighting or percentages would apply. 

At an information meeting with the facilitator, parents have the opportunity to raise any questions and to share their views.  Following engagement with the school community, the facilitator writes a preliminary report reflecting the engagement with the school authorities, staff and parents and submits this to the patron.  This preliminary report is circulated to the school community for information and parents and staff can ask questions, provide feedback and share views by e-mailing a dedicated Department e-mail address.  This feedback is reflected as appropriate in the facilitator's final report to the school patron.

The pilot has already facilitated increased diversity with the announcement last week that a Catholic school in Athlone – Cornamaddy National School, will be transferring patronage from its Catholic patron to Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board becoming a multi-denominational community national school.

In respect of the other pilot areas, the engagement at local level should be largely concluded in many of the pilot areas by the end of Q1 2023 and this will help clarify the level of demand for reconfiguration in the pilot areas. 

It is envisaged that the learning from these pilot areas will inform the process in other areas of the country going forward.