Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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569. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the comments made by Government colleagues regarding sacrament preparation outside of school time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23494/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Patrons have a legal right to design their own programme in accordance with the ethos of their school. Religious education is one of the seven curricular areas of the Primary School Curriculum (1999) and schools are currently required to allocate thirty minutes per day for religious instruction. However, unlike other subject areas, the content of the religious curriculum provided by primary schools is not set by the Department of Education. Section 30 of the Education Act (1998) provides that time will be made available in the school day to teach curriculum that arises from the ethos of the school. This means that the content of the religious instruction programme in a particular primary school is determined by the patron of the school.

Under the Constitution, the provisions of article 44 recognise the rights of children to attend school without attending religious instruction at that school. Furthermore the provisions of Section 30(2) (e) of the Education Act 1998 provide that a school shall not require a student to attend instruction in any subject which is contrary to the conscience of the parent / guardian of the student or in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student. It is expected that this right will be upheld by schools on foot of a parental request.

The provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 requires, where schools provide religious instruction, they must clearly set out in their admission policies the school’s arrangements for students, where the parent or in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student, has requested that the student attend the school without attending religious instruction in the school. The manner in which any school ensures that the right to not attend religion instruction classes is upheld, is a matter for the school concerned.

Each individual school must determine the particular arrangements which are most appropriate in its individual circumstances having regard to local issues such as available space, supervision requirements and how the school concerned organises classes etc. The Department is currently working with education partners to assist schools to strengthen their approach in providing for diverse enrolments in a changing society.

Guidance for good practice is available to schools in the follow-up paper to the Report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector which was published in 2014. The paper provides an overview of different types of arrangements that schools have put in place to facilitate parents who do not wish for their children to attend religious instruction activities.

The paper encourages school authorities to consider their policies and practices and to review whether they are taking the steps necessary to welcome all pupils and make them feel included. The Catholic Schools Partnership has also published guidelines for catholic schools in relation to the inclusion of all pupils and that this also contains suggestions on how such schools can manage requests to attend school without attending religious instruction.

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 reconfiguration process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local communities, has been developed in order to meet demand from parents. 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.

Given the importance of increasing choice for parents. I intend to publish a plan to meet the commitment contained in the Programme for Government regarding multi-denominational education.