Proposals to block Catholic schools from offering any preference to Catholic children in their admissions policies faced major questions last night regarding its legality and suitability. Fianna Fail’s education spokesman, Thomas Byrne, said a “huge” amount of work on the legality of the proposal has not been done by the Education Minister, Richard Bruton. “The revelation that he has failed to carry out even the most basic of constitutionality checks indicates that he hasn’t put much effort into his plan. The groundwork clearly hasn’t been carried out,” Mr Byrne said. Minister Bruton’s plan would block Catholic schools from favouring members of their own denomination, but would allow minority schools to do so in order to “protect their ethos”.  Spokespeople for Catholic schools pointed to a buildings deficit as the real problem and decried the so-called “baptism barrier” as a red herring. Séamus Mulconry of the Catholic Primary School Management Association said just one per cent of those turned down a school place in the Dublin area did not have a Baptism certificate, based on a survey of its schools. “The issue the Minister rightfully seeks to address has more to do with the lack of school places than anything to do with an issue surrounding Baptism certificates,” he said.