The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has said schools’ divestment policy has failed and he has questioned the depth of the desire for change.

Speaking to The Irish Times on Sunday, Archbishop Martin recalled how last month in Dublin Castle – at a meeting between the Government, leaders of Ireland’s churches, other faiths, and various ethical groupings – he told the Taoiseach that the policy on divestment of schools’ boards of management had failed. “The answer I got was that he was only trying to blame the methods for the fact that it hasn’t worked. I didn’t say that we should give up on it.”

The Archbishop further recalled how “the Taoiseach said to me on another occasion there were many other local factors. I suggested the only way to do it was to have some sort of figure or a group of people who went and looked at it.

“Way back when Batt O’Keeffe was minister for education (from 2008 to 2010), I said that probably one of the best ways to do this was to get schools in areas and say that over the lifetime of this grouping the school will change. If you’ve got junior and senior [classes] the lifetime would be only two or three years and that you would have the idea that they would gradually change in ethos rather than have to do it overnight.”

More generally, the archbishop said he felt that while the topic of divestment was “a lively issue in general reflection, I’m not too sure on doorsteps, I’m not too sure that many people are asking for it, because if people are happy with their school they are happy with their school.”