The Catholic hierarchy has dramatically thrown its weight behind the Church of Ireland in its bid to reverse budget cuts that threaten the viability of its schools. In the recent emergency budget the State's support for those schools was reduced by €2.8 million per annum.
The Church of Ireland has been waging an intense campaign to have the Government reinstate the full support.
The bishop in charge of the Catholic hierarchy's education commission, Dr Leo O'Reilly, has now added his voice to those of his counterparts in the Church of Ireland.
''We support the Church of Ireland in their bid to achieve the necessary State funding to assure the future of their schools. We recognise the validity of the argument that due to the dispersed nature of their school going population they need to maintain their current level of State funding,'' he told The Irish Catholic.
''As a Church we support faith-based education. Parents have a right to adequate support in providing for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.
''The Catholic Church accepts that there should be choice and diversity within a national education system, it believes that parents who desire schools under different patronage should, where possible, be facilitated in accessing them,'' he said.
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