Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1043. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of her Department’s policy on the way in which schools funded by the State should facilitate parents who wish to withdraw their children from religious instruction; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47430/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1044. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that have reported having formal procedures in place to give effect to parents' wishes to withdraw their children from religious instruction; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47431/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1045. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the guidance issued by her Department to schools on ensuring that secular instruction is free from religious content and that religious instruction is provided separately and only with parental consent; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47432/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1046. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of the oversight mechanisms in place to ensure that schools funded by the State comply with parents' right to withdraw their children from religious instruction; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47433/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1047. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will commission a review of compliance with Departmental guidance regarding the right of parents to withdraw their children from religious instruction in publicly funded schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47434/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1043 to 1047, inclusive, together.

Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the Board of Management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school. The provisions of article 44 of the constitution recognise the rights of children to attend school without attending religious instruction. 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, and other relevant matters. My Department does not collate this information requested by the Deputy.

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 can put in place to facilitate parents who do not wish for their children to attend religious instruction.

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. These guidelines also support school to facilitate requests to attend school without attending religious instruction.

Most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local bishop as patron. It is recognised, including by the Catholic school patrons, that our schools need to more accurately reflect the reality of our increasingly diverse society and meet the expectations parents have for their children.

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.

The opportunities for the establishment of new multi-denominational primary schools have declined. Demographic trends and projections at primary school level nationally have peaked.

In order to maximise the use of the existing school estate, the Department has developed the schools reconfiguration process. The schools reconfiguration process aims to meet demand from local school communities and to accelerate the delivery of multi-denominational schools by transferring schools to multi-denominational patrons, where school communities support this.

Under the Education Act 1998, the legal responsibility for transferring patronage rests with the current school patron in the first instance. The voice of the parent and school community is important in the context of a decision to transfer patronage and/or to change to a multi-denominational ethos. Further information for school communities regarding transfers of patronage can be found on the school’s reconfiguration page on www.gov.ie/schoolsreconfiguration at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/schools-reconfiguration-for-diversity/

The Department of Education and Youth has published a comprehensive Education Plan 2025 that outlines a significant body of work being undertaken to deliver for everyone in our school and youth services’ communities.

As part of the actions, the Minister plans to undertake a consultation process with relevant stakeholders on the development of best practice guidance for primary schools in relation to providing for their diversity of enrolment, in the context of catering for children whose parents/guardians have requested their children attend school without attending religious instruction.

There are over 100 actions in this plan including a commitment to launch a survey of primary school parents and guardians and pre-school parents and guardians on their preferences on important aspects of school provision and choice, such as the future patronage and ethos of their school. The Minister for Education and Youth intend to launch the survey in quarter 3 of 2025. Further details will be announced in due course.