Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2017
22. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills when he will bring forward the legislation to allow for equal access for all children to schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31578/17]
View answerEarlier this year I ran a public consultation process and held a Forum on the role of religion in school admissions.
Under the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, which last week passed committee stage, schools which are not oversubscribed will have to accept all applicants. This means that religion will not be used in admissions to 80% of schools.
It is in the 20% other schools that this issue now needs to be addressed.
My preference is to remove the capacity for state-funded denominational primary schools, where they are oversubscribed, to use religion as a criteria in admissions process except, in three scenarios:
- where it would not otherwise be possible to maintain the ethos of the school;
- where the school is established by a minority religion, in order to ensure that students of that religion can find a school place in a school of that ethos;
- where the school is established by a minority religion, in order to admit a student of that religion who resides in a community consistently served by that school.
As I have said recently, my intention is to introduce more detailed proposals on this in the autumn, with a view to having them enacted by the end of 2017, depending on the process in the Oireachtas.
