As the Deputy will be aware I recently announced that arrangements are being put in place in a number of towns and areas of cities that have no multi-denominational primary schools 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 is sufficient demand for this.
The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference (representing the Catholic patrons) and relevant Bishops have confirmed their willingness to engage and co-operate fully with the Department in seeking to facilitate a more diverse school patronage in these towns and cities. The engagement has involved reviewing learnings to date and developing agreed arrangements to explore reconfiguration opportunities in these areas as part of a pilot arrangement, as follows:
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Arklow
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Athlone
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Cork*
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Dublin*
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Dundalk
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Galway*
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Limerick*
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Youghal
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*parts of these cities
To facilitate the pilot, the Department has made available a number of independent facilitators across the pilot areas to work with the school patron and relevant school authorities at a local level:
- to progress the reconfiguration pilot initiative;
- to assist in identifying potential school(s) in this regard; and
- to engage with stakeholders including school authorities, school staff and the school community
with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos, where there is sufficient demand for this in the pilot areas.
As part of this process, in each area the facilitator appointed by the Department, along with the relevant patron/patron representative will review data on the schools in the area and will engage directly with the relevant school authorities to progress the initiative at a local level. The process will be shaped by the stage (if any) of consideration of reconfiguration in the area concerned and whether any schools have already been identified or have opted-in at this point.
The facilitators will be paid at standard per diem rates approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for engagement of retired civil servants. Standard civil service travel and subsistence rates will also apply. Accordingly, the overall cost will depend on factors such as the number of schools being engaged with in a pilot area, the number of meetings required and the location of same, and the level of preparation work required.
Administrative support for the facilitators will be provided by Departmental staff from within existing resources.
The learnings from the process in the pilot areas should provide a pathway forward on the process for providing multi-denominational options for parents in other towns and areas of the country going forward.
