merrion street

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn today announced the establishment of a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.

The forum, due to be officially launched before Easter, will advise the Minister on the following:

• how it can best be ensured that the education system can provide a sufficiently diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions and none
• the practicalities of how transfer/divesting of patronage should operate for individual primary schools in communities where it is appropriate and necessary
• how such transfer/divesting can be advanced to ensure that demands for diversity of patronage (including from an Irish language perspective) can be identified and met on a widespread basis nationally

The Forum will pay particular regard to the following:

• the expressed willingness of the Roman Catholic Church to consider divesting patronage of primary schools
• the current financial constraints within which the State is operating, the need for continued restraint into the future and the requirement in this context to make maximum use of existing school infrastructure in catering for future demands

Minister Quinn also announced the appointment of an Advisory Group, headed by Dr. John Coolahan (Professor Emeritus, NUI Maynooth), to convene the Forum