Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn (pictured) has again suggested that the amount of time spent on religious education is harming the teaching of maths and English. He also criticized the amount of time spent teaching Irish.

Speaking to the Irish Times, he claimed in some schools 30 per cent of weekly teaching time is spent on religion and the teaching of Irish.

It was suggested this emphasis could be detracting from other education such as maths and English. “If we are worried about literacy and numeracy and this figure is close to being correct … then we have to ask ourselves questions,” Mr Quinn remarked.

The Minister caused controversy last year when he suggested that the amount of time spent preparing children for the sacraments could be behind figures showing that the perfomance of Irish pupils in literacy and maths had declined significantly in the past number of years.

His suggestion was challenged by former Taoiseach John Bruton, who accused Mr Quinn of singling out religion for blame and pointed out that the time spent teaching religion is not higher than in the past when numeracy and literacy rates were higher.

In his Irish Times interview, Mr Quinn distinguished between learning about religion and faith formation.

He said: “I think religion is absolutely essential if you want to understand modern civilisation. But there is a difference between teaching religion and faith formation in schools.”

Referring to the teaching of Irish, he recalled how some educationalists had labelled Irish-language teaching as the “biggest single policy failure in Irish education”.

Last April, Mr Quinn he would prefer schools to spend time on reading and maths skills rather than preparing pupils for First Communion and Confirmation.

He referred to a severe decline in performance by Irish 15-year-olds in the international OECD/PISA league table on literacy published last year, dropping from 5th to 17th place. Maths also dipped.

At present, pupils in primary school spend 30 minutes a day on religion, which in Catholic schools includes preparation for the sacraments.

Other schools, such as the non-denominational Educate Together sector, also spend 30 minutes daily on ethical issues, but it does not include formal religious instruction.

The Minister said that teaching the sacraments took up a lot of time, and suggested that it might be done by parents or parish, perhaps within the school building but outside school teaching hours.

However, former Taoiseach John Bruton said last year in response: “As far as I know that 30 minutes per day has not increased over the period since the earlier tests in which Ireland obtained a creditable 5th place.

“So why single out religious formation? Why does the Minister not, for example, refer to the teaching of second language, Irish in most cases, on which I believe 120 minutes per day is spent?”

He suggested that a possible explanation for the decline could be that the school year was too short.

“Irish second level (but not primary) school children spend slightly fewer hours per year in school than do their equivalents in the OECD as a whole,” he said.

However, when Ireland got its former high mark in the international comparison, this was also the case, he pointed out.

“So why single out the 30 minutes per day spent on religious formation, when there are so many other ways to find time to improve out scores in reading and mathematics?” Mr Bruton asked.