The issue of our schools featured at this week’s MacGill summer school including in speeches by Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly (pictured) and Labour TD Aodhan O’Riordain.

Unlike O’Riordain, O’Reilly has a nuanced line on the Catholic Church, nonetheless she seems to disapprove of the fact that at independence the State ‘outsourced’ the teaching of the nation’s children to the State.

It’s interesting that in neither of their speeches do O’Riordain or O’Reilly seem to consider the wishes of parents. What do parents want? In 1922, would they have been happy to see our new State seize the schools from the Catholic Church (and the Protestant Churches?) It seems highly unlikely.

Such a move might have fitted in well with the sort of socialist republicanism that seems to be favoured by O’Riordain, but it would have also been a highly illiberal move.

What do parents want today? They still seem keen enough on Catholic schools. In several dozen areas parents have now had the chance to say whether they want Catholic schools to be given to other patron bodies and only a fraction of them have said yes.

Indeed, both O’Reilly and O’Riordain betray an extremely statist mentality, which is not surprising in the case of O’Riordain given his liking for the State, but is more surprising in the case of O’Reilly given that she seems to be one of the few genuine liberals in the country.

Why should the State control the education system and run our schools? Why shouldn’t there be private providers with public funding subject to certain minimum standards?

Why shouldn’t parents rule the roost, subject again to certain limitations?

Finally, where is the evidence that State-run schools are so good? In most countries, denominational schools outperform them.

PS O’Riordain in his speech lauds the Finnish education system and it does top educational tables. But Northern Ireland is also very near the top and in Northern Ireland there is a flourishing Catholic system of the sort O’Riordain seems to intensely dislike.