Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 January 2024
276. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Education to provide, in tabular form, a list of second-level education institutions aided by her Department whose ethos or religion has changed from catholic to interdenominational or multidenominational since 2000, indicating the year the school changed its ethos, and the school's roll number and planning area in each case. [2438/24]
View answerAs the decision-making authority for any change of ethos is the patron/trustees of the schools concerned, it is open to any patron to submit proposals to the Department for consideration.
Any proposed change involves extensive negotiations at local level and must be well planned and managed in a manner that accommodates the interests of students, parents, teachers, local communities and contributes to an inclusive education system. The Department has received no proposal from a post primary school to change its ethos/religion from Catholic to inter-denominational or multi-denominational since 2000.
Since 2000, there has been 103 new Post Primary schools established throughout Ireland. 90 of these (90%) have been established as a Multi-Denominational schools.
At primary level, progress has been made towards increasing the numbers of multi-denominational schools in recent years. There are currently 168 primary schools with a multi-denominational or inter-denominational ethos. For historical reasons, most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local Bishop as patron, although this pattern is changing. It is recognised, including by the Catholic patrons, that more diverse provision is required to cater for our changing society.
The Schools Reconfiguration 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. During 2022/23 a structured engagement process took place with school communities in a number of towns and areas of cities that had no multi-denominational primary schools. This process aimed 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 was sufficient demand for this. Following consultation with relevant stakeholders, it is intended that the review of the 2022/23 engagement process will be finalised and published in Q1 2024. It is envisaged that it will include a framework for delivering on the Government commitment for increasing multi-denominational provision. A significant amount of work has been done by the Department on the scope, logistics and practical arrangements for a potential survey of primary schools in relation to reconfiguration and details will be announced in due course.
The Government’s goal remains to establish a strong process, that has the support of patrons and local communities, and which will enable us to continue to increase the number of multi-denominational primary schools across the country.
