THE Catholic Church wants a new type of primary school -- jointly operated with the Department of Education.This would give the Church an input into the management of the new schools and a voice in shaping both the ethos and religious education programme.
The Church runs 2,899 out of 3,282 primary schools and caters for 92pc of the school-going population.
Bishop Leo O'Reilly said yesterday that as Ireland became more diverse, the Church would not continue to have such a massive proportion of primary schools.
He said that where an existing school was no longer viable, because the Catholic children were a small minority, the patron may wish to relinquish ownership of the school, after consultation.
"In general I would say that, faced with the prospect of relinquishing ownership of a Catholic school in favour of another model, Catholic patrons would favour transferring to something modelled closely on the existing second-level community school," he said.
Faith
This would involve the patron entering into a joint patronage or trustee arrangement with the Department of Education and Science. Such a joint patronage might even include another religious patron of a different faith or denomination.
The resulting school would be genuinely multi-denominational in that it would include all and try to cater for the religious instruction and worship of the different denominations represented in the school.
"This in turn would give it a voice in shaping the ethos of the school and in particular of the provision of religious education in the programme," he told a conference in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
The conference also heard a strong defence of the child protection provisions in Catholic primary schools and a rejection of suggestions that the educational and care provisions of children were being "farmed out to organisations who are unaccountable".
Bishop O'Reilly said school patrons were fully accountable to the law.
"I want to state clearly that the safety and welfare of pupils in our schools is assured by State law and regulation."
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