New
Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn, has confirmed that he will set up a national
forum as soon as possible to discuss the hand-over of some Catholic schools to
new patron bodies. 
He told RTE
the purpose would be to “assist” the Catholic Church to divest itself of some
of its school “where they choose and as appropriate.”
He said the
forum will “discuss implementation” of this and will not be “a talking shop”.
Minister Quinn
was attending a meeting of the Catholic Primary School Management Association
where he received a standing ovation from delegates.
At present,
92 percent of primary schools are under Catholic management – although the
Department of Education has the biggest say over what happens in them.
The
Catholic Church itself has argued that the number of Catholic schools in the
country now exceeds the true level of demand for them.
Mr Quinn
said: “The dilemma for many Catholic parents who want Catholic education is
that they have many people in the school who don’t share that particular ethos,
and therefore they can’t fully celebrate their own faith and belief and
therefore what we’re trying to do is provide a system whereby schools that are
surplus to requirements as far as the Catholic authorities are concerned can be
divested in an orderly way.”
However, the
Programme for Government (PfG) is committed to amending Section 37 of the
Employment Equality Act so as to force such schools to employ teachers whose beliefs
or lifestyles might clash with school ethos.
In
addition, the INTO has been openly critical of the admissions policies of
denominational schools which it says cause ‘segregation’ along religious lines.
Also, the
new Code of Conduct for Teachers means a teacher could be investigated for
professional misconduct if they caused ‘offense’ to a pupil on grounds of
marital status or religion.
The
Teaching Council confirmed it would investigate a complaint, if one was
received, that a teacher had taught his or her class that heterosexual marriage
is morally normative.
Referring
to the commitment in the PfG to open negotiations with the 18 orders named in
the Ryan Report so as to hand over their school infrastructures to the State, Mr
Quinn could not give a timetable as to when these would begin.
He said he
would look into the teaching of religion in the new community national schools.
This involves teaching the children in their separate faith groups during
schools hours. When in opposition, Mr Quinn was sharply critical of this and he
accused the Department of caving into the Catholic Church.
He was
reminded that when the Ryan Report was published he accused the Department of harbouring
secret members of Opus Dei and the Knights of St Columbanus.
He did not
comment on this specifically but did say that the Department’s answers to him in the
past were very unsatisfactory, and he will given guidance so that in future
politicians’ questions are satisfactorily answered.