Education minister Ruairi Quinn (pictured) has given Irish bishops an interim deadline of just three months to decide on handing over some Catholic schools to other forms of patronage, according to The Irish Catholic.

This means parishes in some parts of the country will only have weeks to identify the schools they want to give up.   

Mr Quinn has previously said he could see up to 50 per cent of Catholic schools switching hands, despite the fact that only a small minority of parents polled in five school areas to date expressed a desire for change.

The proposed three month time frame to identify which schools they are willing to hand over is “questionable”, according to Prof. Eamonn Conway of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.

Prof. Conway queried both the demand for diversity and the period of time that has been suggested for the Catholic hierarchy to decide on schools that could be divested to other forms of patronage.  

Prof. Conway said it would be “inappropriate” to “portray reluctance by the current patrons to cooperate or to be seen as dragging their heels in the process of divesting Catholic schools to other patron bodies”.

The current survey, which is open to parents of children attending the 311 primary schools in 38 areas surveyed, will close on the 8th of February.

It is understood that after the results of the survey go to Minister Quinn, the Catholic bishops will then have three months to submit an interim report and six months to submit their final report to the minister.

Also speaking to The Irish Catholic this week, Fr Michael Drumm, Chairperson of the Catholic Schools Partnership, said the real issue is that “there is an insufficient demand for diversity”.

“The pilot survey had very low participation rates with only about 25-30 per cent of the relevant parents participating,” Fr Drumm said.

According to Fr Drumm, “only about 30 pc” of the parents who completed the survey indicated they were in favour of more school diversity. This number constitutes around 4pc to 8pc of the total number of relevant parents.

Fr Drumm said the Church was now closely analysing the report of the pilot survey with a view to submitting a response to Minister Quinn in the coming months.  

Meanwhile, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said that Catholic schools must be allowed to be truly Catholic.

Speaking yesterday at the Church of Our Lady’s Nativity, Leixlip on the subject of Catholic Schools Week, Archbishop Martin said that denominational education “is a valid pillar of our future educational system”.  

“Government has a responsibility to foster the desire of parents who wish for denominational education but all those associated with denominational education must also ensure that the education offered in our Catholic schools is of the highest level,” he said.  

Archbishop Martin added that it was a paradox that “Catholic education will only survive in the Ireland of the future in the robust presence of other forms of education”.

He said: “Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ is the essential pillar of Catholic education. The Catholic school – to bring its original contribution to society – must be allowed then to be truly Catholic.

“People who are strong and mature in their own religious identity are the ones who are best able to live within and foster diversity and dialogue. Insecurity about ones faith is at the root of fundamentalism.”