The Ombudsman for Children says Government plans to allow schools of minority faith-communities to favour their own children in schools admission policies will end up discriminating against other children seeking access to the same schools. The Church of Ireland and other minority-faiths say they would have to turn away children of their own faith if they cannot admit them first.
Minister for Education Richard Bruton has announced plans to prohibit oversubscribed Catholic primary schools from giving enrolment priority to children of Catholic families, but will allow minority faiths, such as the Church of Ireland, to do so in order to protect their schools’ characteristic ethos.
Reacting to the Minister’s plans, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office warned that allowing minority faiths to use religion as a condition of entry means some children will end up being treated differently from other children. “This provision would create further discriminatory provisions between children of different religions and none,” the Ombudsman’s submission states. As a solution, the Ombudsman said that use of religion as a criteria for entry to schools should be abolished.
It is not clear how the Ombudsman’s position coheres with the Constitution’s recognition of equity, namely that, while all citizens are equal, the law shall “have due regard to differences of capacity, physical and moral, and of social function.”
