Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 June 2016
3. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills how he intends to deal with the issue of discrimination on religious grounds in school admissions; and his plans to insert a provision into the forthcoming schools admission Bill to deal with this issue. [18465/16]
View answerThe religious criterion for admission to schools has been a major issue for years. Whereas the most famous example is in Dublin, I have come across it several times in Meath. We would like to know what the Minister intends to do in the Government's schools admission Bill, notwithstanding other Bills that are before us.
The programme for Government contains a commitment to publish new school admissions legislation taking account of current draft proposals and addressing issues including publication of school enrolment policies, an end to waiting lists, introduction of annual enrolment structures and transparency and fairness in admissions for pupils and their parents. I have commenced a process of consultation with Opposition parties to discuss my proposals to introduce a new admissions Bill. Following these consultations, it is my intention to publish a new admissions Bill during the current Dáil session.
An effective way of providing diversity and choice for parents is by providing additional multidenominational and non-denominational schools, and in this regard I have committed to increasing the rate of delivery of these schools, to reach a total of 400 such schools by 2030. I have set out a series of measures through which this can be delivered.
As the Deputy may be aware, Deputy Joan Burton of the Labour Party has initiated a Private Members' Bill proposing an amendment to section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act, and it is due to be discussed later today. As previously indicated, my preference is to discuss this complex issue with the Oireachtas committee at the earliest opportunity and I am open to hearing views on the best way to proceed within our existing constitutional framework.
Across the country, there is an increasing mismatch in patronage arrangements for national schools in particular, although it will become a more common issue for secondary schools as the years go on and as the bubble of national school students moves on. The overwhelming focus on patronage divestment during the past five years has distracted from the essential and immediately relevant question of how children from non-religious backgrounds should be accommodated in the existing structures and the rights of all to have freedom of conscience and school admission upheld. Fianna Fáil is very much concerned with it and we published a policy on it before the election.
The Equal Status Act prohibits religious discrimination, but allows schools to enrol co-religionists in preference to members of other faiths when a school is oversubscribed. It is wrong that 20% of schools in Dublin are oversubscribed and they seem to be the most active in applying religious selection criteria. Our difficulty is with the minority faith schools. Some level of positive discrimination is essential to Church of Ireland and other minority religious schools. If we simply delete the provision of the Equal Status Act, those schools could suffer disproportionately. I wonder if the Minister has a view on it.
Children from outside the area of a local school are often given preference over children who are in the school catchment area but who are not of the denomination. Deputy Joan Burton's Bill seeks to address this. The Bill may raise complex issues such as the impact on minority religions, and they need time and space to allow hearings by the Oireachtas education committee to tease out the issues. I propose that Deputy Joan Burton's Bill, which we will discuss later, be deferred and passed on Second Stage one year hence in order to give the Oireachtas education committee time to tease out the very complex issues. Deputy Burton's Bill is a very constructive contribution to the debate. This would be the best way to proceed. We will have a chance later this evening to discuss it at length.
Does the Minister have a timeframe in mind? If Deputy Joan Burton's proposal were to succeed, or our proposal which is a variation on it, work will have to be done on catchment areas. Does the Department have administrative arrangements in place for this? This issue is rightly a political hot potato. It must be addressed and there is a responsibility on us to do so. We all see injustices done when these criteria are applied in a way that is perfectly legal and correct at the moment. While we would emphasise the locality and catchment, we see that there are administrative issues. What consideration has the Minister given to it in terms of timescale? While some children have already passed the school entry age, others are coming up through the ranks and their parents are watching, worriedly, their prospects for entry to their local school.
The former Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, did much of the work on the admissions Bill, and I would like it to proceed, given that there is much consensus on many of the issues in it. Another issue which is not in the admissions Bill has been raised, and we should take the opportunity to tease out the practicalities of the Labour Party Bill, parallel to the passage of the admissions Bill, which is a priority for the school year 2017-18. Hopefully, we will be in a position to advance it.
That is the best approach. Let us harvest the admissions Bill and then examine the issues such as catchment. At the moment, catchment does not have a basis in legislation and, therefore, it is a new concept, which needs to be worked through.
