Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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759. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there are any plans for national schools in Palmerstown and Lucan to become part of the trial to move from Catholic patronage to non-denominational in 2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1335/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Government’s objective is to have at least 400 multidenominational 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 Reconfiguration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multidenominational patrons in response to the wishes of local families, has been developed in order to accelerate the delivery of multidenominational 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 multidenominational 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:

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 multidenominational 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 and the inclusion of any additional areas would be considered in that context.