Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2017
97. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to accelerate the divestment of patronage of schools; if schools will be divested to the community national school model; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6464/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra98. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the mechanisms his Department will utilise in order to ascertain the wishes of local communities for the purposes of divestment of patronage; if the process will be open to all of the various patrons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6465/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 97 and 98 together.
The Deputy will be aware that I announced last week new plans aimed at providing more multi-denominational and non-denominational schools across the country, in line with the choices of families and school communities and the Programme for Government commitment in this area.
This will involve the Education and Training Boards in the initial phase, as the State’s local education authorities, identifying areas where there is likely to be demand for greater diversity and they will work with pre-school services to establish evidence of this demand among the cohort of pre-school parents. There will then be discussions between individual ETBs and the existing patrons/landowners concerning the possible transfer of schools to accommodate this demonstrated demand for diversity.
Each ETB will then prepare a report for the Department outlining the levels of demand within their functional areas and the responses of the existing patrons as to how this might be accommodated through the reconfiguration of existing school provision.
In the subsequent implementation phase, where the level of demand for multidenominational schools is sufficient to justify transfer of a school from denominational to multi-denominational patronage, a process will commence to give effect to that. There will be a role for the existing patron/landowner in consulting with local community and school interests and taking into account proposals from different prospective multi-denominational patrons. It is envisaged that transfers will largely be by way of voluntary transfer of live schools by existing patrons.
This new process for supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local families is based around principles of transparency and co-operation. Therefore, there will be a very substantial level of consultation of local communities in the process, both with the ETBs in the initial phase to establish evidence of demand by consulting pre-school parents and subsequently through the requirement for the existing patron to consult with local community and school interests in proposing to transfer patronage of an existing school to an alternative patron body. In that process, the existing patron will also take into account proposals from all prospective multidenominational patrons that wish to be considered.
