The Catholic bishops have refused to supply the Department of Education with a list of schools where they are willing to give up patronage, suggesting instead that the department compile a list which they will then consider.Talks between the department and the bishops on transferring the patronage of some primary schools out of Church hands will continue in the new year, but the department has no immediate plans for reform in the area.
A meeting took place in mid-November between education officials and representatives of the hierarchy but, contrary to the department’s expectations, the bishops did not produce a list of schools where they would be willing to give up patronage.
A spokesman for education minister Batt O’Keeffe told The Sunday Business Post that discussions with the bishops on school patronage were at an early stage.
‘‘There isn’t really a timeframe," he said. The spokesman emphasised that the minister had no power under legislation to remove a patron from a school.
Officials in the Department of Education are now examining areas where it believes there may be demand for a change in patronage.
It is believed that the locations proposed by the department are likely to be settled urban areas, rather than faster developing new urban areas where new non-Catholic schools are more likely to be set up. It is not clear to what extent the bishops will be prepared to give up the patronage of many schools which have a long history of a Catholic ethos.
In a recent newspaper article, Bishop Leo O’Reilly, the chairman of the Bishops’ Commission on Education, said that it remained the choice of many parents to have a Catholic ethos in their children’s schools.
‘‘Parental choice means the wishes of all parents, as far as possible, must be respected, including those of Catholic parents," Bishop O’Reilly wrote.
In a statement, the minister’s spokesman said that any changes ‘‘need to be planned and managed, and the desirability in individual school cases of consultation with all stakeholders - parents, teachers and local communities - is vital. The work of the Department Church group is to undertake a detailed assessment of areas in which schools could be identified where there is more school provision than needed by the demand for Catholic education, and where existing schools could be used to provide for diversity of parental choice’’.
In the wake of the Murphy Report into the handling of clerical sex abuse claims in Dublin, there have been calls for the bishops named in the report to step down as patrons of primary schools.
The position of a school patron is recognised in law, and the patron appoints two members of a school’s eight-member board of management.
The appointment of teachers is also subject to the approval of the patron.
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