Senator Mullen calls for greater sensitivity in debate concerning transfer of Catholic schools, pluralism and redress scheme

News Release

 

23rd April, 2010 

 

Senator Mullen calls for greater sensitivity in debate concerning transfer of Catholic schools, pluralism and redress scheme

 

Independent NUI Senator Rónán Mullen has today called for greater sensitivity in the debate concerning transfer of Catholic schools to the State.

 

Speaking alongside Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn TD at the Jesuit Education Boards of Management Conference in Maynooth, Senator Mullen stated “I do not believe that the linking of the indemnity and redress scheme issues with the transfer of Catholic schools to the state sheds any light on the debate. They are two separate issues to be considered on their own merits. The main area where transfer of Catholic schools is needed is at primary level where the religious orders run very few schools. Most Catholic schools at the primary level are diocesan.”

 

“There is a need for negotiations which benefit both parties involved in the transfer of schools, Church and State. At the secondary level the transfer of some Catholic schools to the State could 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% of second level students who attend voluntary schools.”

 

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