Catholic schools should stop religious instruction during school time according to a left-wing TD, despite parents having a constitutional right to send their children to denominational schools.

Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins. who represents Dublin South Central and is a former chairwoman of Educate Together, accused the Government of moving at “nought miles an hour” in transferring schools from church-run to secular control.

She said some parents were sending their children to Catholic schools only because they had no other choice in their area, a decision she characterised as being “forced”.

Parents may request that their children opt-out of catechetics, but Ms Cummins is not happy with that either:

“What we are seeing in schools is children, sitting down the back of classrooms, who are being excluded from part of the curriculum. They are sitting there doing nothing, losing out on their education,” Ms Cummins said.

Her solution is to stop catechetics in Catholic schools entirely:

“I feel very strongly that religion should be done outside school time, in your own time.”