One of nine new post-primary schools announced by the Department of Education and Skills will have a Catholic 
patron.
All others will be overseen by multi-denominational and non-denominational patrons.
The nine new schools will be opened in 2015 and 2016, and will provide spaces for 7,300 students in areas of Cork, Cavan, Dublin and north Wicklow, the department said.
Five will be large schools catering for more than 1,000 students, the Irish Times reports.
The Department of Education is claiming that parental demand was the reason for the decision.
The Department said that perspective patrons had been asked to provide evidence of parental wishes, the department said.
In April, the Department published results of a survey of parents in 38 areas to find out how many want to send their children to a non-denominational school
However the report showed that there was a low response rate and little interest was shown in alternatives to Catholic schools.
The Catholic Bishops’Council of Education said the survey revealed only a “limited request for change”.
Fr Michael Drumm, chair of the Catholic Schools Partnership said that participation rates for the survey within each area varied between only 13pc to a little over a quarter.
The Council pointed out that, in the 23 areas where the report said there was sufficient demand for change only between 2.2pc and eight percent of parents with children in school in these areas expressed an opinion in favour of change.
In the remaining 15 locations demand for a change of patrons in any of the schools was too small to warrant a change.
Commenting on the schools announced by the Department, Education Minister Ruiari Quinn said that the fact that the new patrons include those of multidenominational and those of a Catholic ethos “clearly demonstrates that the department and I are committed to providing diversity of ethos in our schools and respecting the demands of parents”.
Four of the new schools will be under the patronage of Educate Together, two will be run by the local Education and Training Boards (ETB) which replaced the former VECs, one by the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST), one jointly by the local ETB and Educate Together and the final school will be managed by the local ETB with the involvement of the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne.
The Edmund Rice Schools Trust school in Cork south suburbs/Carrigaline is the only one to have a patronage that is exclusively Catholic.