Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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854. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she plans to roll out a survey to schools and school communities on the issue of divestment and school patronage; the details and the timeline for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19225/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commits to seeking to increase choice for parents by ensuring that families can access both multi/non-denominational and faith based education.

For historical reasons, most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local Bishop as patron. It is recognised, including by the Catholic patrons, that more diverse provision is required to cater for our changing society.

The Schools Recon?guration for diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local communities, has been developed in order to accelerate the delivery of multi-denominational schools. When a school transfers from the patronage of one patron to another, the school remains open with the same roll number and operating from the same school property. All state-funded primary schools follow a common national curriculum and are subject to the same Department rules and regulations.

Given the importance of increasing choice for parents, I intend to launch a survey of primary school communities shortly. Further details regarding the survey will be announced in due course.