The group which represents the principals of Irish primary schools has called for bishops named in the Murphy report to step aside as patrons of schools. 

In a statement released today the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) called for “personnel at any level, who have failed in any way in their child protection responsibilities, to immediately step aside to facilitate a full and thorough investigation”. 

An IPPN survey found that over 80 per cent of principals indicated that bishops named in the Murphy report should not continue in their position of school patron. 

Last year, IPPN head Sean Cottrell called for the State “needed to take control of more than paying teachers’ salaries”. 

Writing in The Irish Times he argued that the current enrolment policy of Catholic schools reflected “outdated and segregational views of patronage”. 

He also argued that Irish society, Irish families and Irish children were no longer homogenous. 

The network said that despite the belated resignation of the Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray many primary school principals still have “deep rooted concerns” in relation to child protection in primary schools in Ireland. 

The survey found that 2 per cent of schools did not have an up to date child protection policy and it said authorities need to redress this scenario “as a matter of urgency” and place current guidelines on a statutory footing. 

Currently the IPPN website has a link to an article by one of the Catholic Church’s harshest critics, Emer O’Kelly, calling for the Church to be removed from schools.