Education reform should stress genuine pluralism over a ‘one size fits all’ model of religious education , Independent NUI Senator Rónán Mullen has said today.

Speaking alongside Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn TD at the Jesuit Education Boards of Management Conference in Maynooth, Senator Mullen also criticized attempts to link the abuse issue with the transfer of Catholic schools to the State saying it doesn’t “shed any light on the debate”.

The two issues were separate, and needed to be considered on their own merits, he insisted.

Mr Quinn, Education spokesperson for Labour, in the wake of the Ryan Report, said that Church-run schools should be handed over to the State as part repayment for the compensation paid out to victims of abuse in Church-run institutions named in the report.

His contribution comes in the wake of a Labour party resolution last week calling for an end to the policy which allows schools to set their own admission policies, allowing faith schools to give preference to pupils of their religion.

Senator Mullen added that there was a need for negotiations between Church and State on the issue of education which benefitted both parties.

He said that any transfer of Catholic schools to the State should occur “in tandem with the equalising of State funding to all of voluntary, vocational and community schools”.

“Currently, the funding gap between voluntary schools on the one hand and community and vocational schools on the other is grossly unfair to the 60 per cent of second level students who attend voluntary schools,” he pointed out.

Senator Mullen continued: “At the level of primary education, the time and money invested into the establishment and running of Catholic schools by generations of lay people cannot be ignored when it comes to the transfer of a number of schools for the purpose of pluralism.

“In creating a new model for primary education the state should seek to acknowledge this generational investment by paralleling how religion is taught in community and vocational secondary schools.

“Instead of proposing a ‘one size fits all` model, where religion is reduced to a cultural phenomenon, the State should accommodate the wishes of those parents who want their children to be instructed in religious faith in primary level State schools.

“The need for this would only arise in the areas where the demand for Catholic primary education outstrips supply, but with the transfer of Catholic schools to the State this need will arise.”

Such a model, he said, would ensure genuine pluralism as parents’ wishes regarding the religious education of their children “would be respected regardless of their own faith commitments.”