The Department of Education wasn’t slow in asking the Catholic bishops to list the schools it is willing to hand over to the State for reallocation to other patron bodies, such as the VEC or Educate Together. 

A number of months ago Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Bishop Leo O’Reilly said that the bishops were well aware of the fact that Irish society is not as Catholic as it once was and in certain parts of the country it might make sense in principle to give up control of certain schools. 

Now the Department of Education wants to know which schools the bishops have in mind. Given that there is no evidence that any particular community is clamouring to have its local Catholic school changed into some other kind of school, that is a bit cheeky, to put it mildly 

Maybe the Church should tell the Department that it will give it such a list when the Department starts approving new Catholic secondary schools again, something it hasn’t done in 25 years despite all the new communities that have sprung up in the meantime.