Denominational schools exist in response to the Constitutional right of parents to choose the sort of education their children receive, and do not engage in “discrimination” the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin (pictured), Michael Jackson, has said.

He was responding to a submission made by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan to the Department of Education’s consultation on draft legislation on school selection policies.

Ms Logan had said that denominational schools should no longer have the right to prefer children from their own denomination.

She said that in circumstances where a denominational school is oversubscribed, children not of its denomination, or of none, are at an unfair disadvantage. “Children should not have preferential access to publicly funded education on the basis of their religion and that the Equal Status Act should reflect that principle.”

However, in response, Archbishop Jackson rejected her suggestion, pointing out that the Constitution made provision for parents to exercise a choice to have their children attend a school “in the tradition of the faith and ethos which they hold dear”, The Irish Independent reports.

The Archbishop, who is patron of 49 denominational schools, said this constitutional and democratic right was not in any way “designed to be a slap in the face” to people who wanted a more secular or pluralist education.

Dr Jackson said part of the difficulty was that Ireland had inherited an educational system where historically the Churches had provided education for altruistic reasons and now found themselves “very much boxed in to denominational self-identity”.

The right of denominational schools to prefer children from their own faith background is protected in section 7 of the Equal Status Act, which allows schools to protect their ethos.

The Constitution also acknowledges the right of parents to educate parents according to their religious beliefs, and, in the context of providing free primary education, it undertakes to have “due regard” for this right.

The Constitution also says that the State must “not impose any disabilities or make any discrimination on the ground of religious profession, belief or status”.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn published the general scheme of the Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill in September, to provide a new regulatory framework for school enrolment procedures and to provide a new appeals mechanism.

Meanwhile, denominational schools have been accused of indirectly causing ‘segregation’ by a group called The Integration Centre.

The chief executive of the Centre, Killian Forde, said there was an “accelerating trend” where one school in an area was becoming a migrant school while the other is become the Irish Catholic school.