Parents in a Dublin suburb are being consulted on whether they want to remove the Catholic patronage of one of three church-run schools.

Key meetings are taking place this week in Raheny, on the city’s northside, as part of the Department of Education’s schools’ reconfiguration process.

It is one of a number of communities around the country where there is no multi-denominational or educate-together primary school and where the possibility of transferring patronage of a school from the Catholic Church is being explored.

Some parents in the Raheny area have been campaigning for change, not only for multi-denominational, but also a co-educational school for their children beyond first class.

However, in Raheny, and elsewhere, not all parents may support such a move and the views of all are considered in the process.

While the Catholic Church no longer receives the broad support in Irish society it once enjoyed, many parents are reluctant to give up the local church-run management of schools.

There was a major controversy in the Malahide-Portmarnock area of Dublin in 2019 when some school staff and parents objected to a plan to divest one of eight Catholic schools in the area, a move that was subsequently shelved.