Bishops given October deadline to decide what schools to hand over

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has given Catholic bishops until October to name the 29 primary schools they will be handing over to other patron bodies.

The minister set out his timetable at the annual conference of the Catholic Primary School Managers Association.

He wants the schools to be transferred to new patrons in September 2014.

But it remains to be seen whether the Catholic Church will comply with the deadline.

Later, he told reporters that he wasn't talking about only a few schools being handed over in September 2014, and said he would be "very disappointed" if out of 3,000 Catholic schools, 29 schools were not under new patronage at that time.

He said in order for that to happen, the Department of Education would need the names of the schools by October.