Religious leaders are expected to ask Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to elaborate today on what he meant when calling for a new ‘covenant’ between Church and State during last year’s papal visit.

The latest structured dialogue meeting involving the Taoiseach, members of the Government and representatives of the churches, of other faiths and of non-confessional bodies will take place at Dublin Castle.

The Catholic Church, which will be represented at the meeting by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Siobhán Hanley, head of Trócaire Northern Ireland, will call on the Government to support parents “who wish for a faith-based education for their children”.

The Church of Ireland is to discuss the primary school forum, which it said was “extremely constructive as a means of critical engagement with the formation and implementation of Government policy in the sector”.