Education Policy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 January 2016

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Questions (227)

Róisín Shortall

Question:

227. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Skills her response to the findings and recommendations (details supplied) regarding the State's responsibility to provide inclusive multi-denominational and non-denominational education; the individual response she gave to each recommendation; the steps she took to implement the individual recommendations for each finding; the resources allocated to complete these tasks; and her intentions regarding this issue. [1816/16]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The government is committed to ensure greater diversity of choice in school provision. This is a stated aim of the programme for government. In this regard, progress continues to be made on a number of fronts. Firstly, the new school establishment procedures put in place since 2011 now provide parental input into the type of new school to be provided. Secondly, a patronage divesting process is ongoing in areas of stable population growth that do not have diversity of primary school provision but don't require a new school due to stable demographics. The aim of this process is to ensure diversity of provision through reconfiguration of existing school provision. To date, since 2013 eight schools have opened under the divesting process. Work is ongoing to ensure delivery of choice in other areas. Thirdly, a public consultation on inclusivity at primary level was conducted in 2013 and a report on the outcome of this was published on my Department's website.