In March, the Iona Institute hosted a conference last week on the future of denominational schools in light of Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s Forum on the same topic.
The three speakers were the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Richard Clarke; the Chair of the Catholic schools Partnership, Fr Michael Drumm; and Mr Henk Vos of VGS an organisation which supports boards and directors of Christian schools in the Netherlands.
Bishop Clarke told the conference that cuts to the education budget were disproportionately impacting Church of Ireland schools. He said that the cuts were targeting smaller schools, and that many Church of Ireland schools would end up being non-viable if the cuts were implemented. Bishop Clarke’s talk can be listened to here [1].