The Catholic church has reached an agreement [1] with the Department of Education which may give fresh impetus to the provision of greater choice in primary education provision for families.
The deal covers 5 towns, as well as the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, and states that the church’s “Council of Education and relevant Bishops have confirmed their willingness to engage and co-operate fully with the Department in seeking to facilitate a more diverse school patronage in these towns and areas”.
The towns are Arklow, Athlone, Dundalk, Nenagh and Youghal, all of which currently have no multi-denominational primary school provision.
The agreement also states that “no other area is precluded from investigating a change in patronage”.
A Department of Education spokesperson has said guidelines will issue shortly to schools who may be interested in divesting from Catholic to multi-denominational patronage.