I have welcomed the announcement from the Minister for Education that his Department will shortly be releasing details of ten urban areas where it believes that there is a surplus of Catholic schools and a need for some of them to shut down.

I hope that this move is an indication that the government is at least beginning to accept that there is now a compelling case for moving towards a new system of patronage that takes account of changing views in regard to religion and education.

It is also important that the proposed areas should be selected on a fair basis, representing a cross section of Irish society, and that there should be no question of ‘cherry-picking’ schools in areas of higher income.

“The system of patronage that evolved when 95% of our population were practicing Catholics is no longer appropriate when there are now such a range of denominations and when an increasing number of people want to able to opt for non-denominational or inter-denomination education for their children.

“It also clear that many Catholic priests, who currently act as school managers, would welcome the opportunity to divest themselves of the burden of running primary schools.

“I believe that the way in which we should now proceed is through the establishment of a National Forum on Patronage in Primary Schools.  Such a forum would involve all of the stakeholders, parents, patrons, teachers, principals and others. This would provide the road map to the future shape of our primary school system.

The answer to this problem is the orderly transfer of Catholic patronage of some primary schools to other patron bodies under supervision of the Department of Education and Science.

This would reflect modern day practice and observance. It would enable Catholic parents to have Catholic schools which would deliver Catholic education for observant Catholic parents and their children.

Minister Batt O’Keeffe is correct to respond to concerns that about ‘grade inflation’ in university and Leaving Certificate results. I raised this matter in the Dáil before Christmas with the Minister and at the time he expressed no concerns about reports of grade inflation.

I am glad to see that he has changed his opinion on the matter. There is a lot of rhetoric from the government about developing a ‘knowledge economy’, but the reality is that our education system has never been so underfunded and in need of overdue reform. Grade inflation is merely a symptom of a wider problem in our education system.

Ireland ranks 30th out of 34 countries in terms of education expenditure as a percentage of GDP, according to a recent OECD report. We need to move towards a consensus on education expenditure, even during the current economic difficulties. The Labour Party is of the view that 7.0% of GDP should be spent on education over the coming years.

Our education system has not been helped by recent budgets, which have cut supports for our students. It is alarming when some of the largest employers in this country are concerned about the quality of our education system.

Dr. Craig Barrett was responsible for bringing Intel to Ireland. If we are to create an export-driven economy, we need to take action now so we can compete with well educated workforces in other countries in the future.

The Dublin South East Labour Party is currently distributing its Spring 2010 Newsletter around the constituency.

Have a read of it below.

Spring 2010 Labour Newsletter

Below is an article I wrote for The Irish Times. It was published on Tuesday 26th January 2010.

NOW THAT our primary schools have reopened after the recent cold spell, and in the light of the astounding revelations in the latest Irish Times opinion poll, it is timely to explore the apparent thaw in the Catholic Church’s attitude to the question of pluralism and patronage in our 3,200 primary schools.

Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chairman of the bishops’ commission on education, recently made an interesting contribution (“Catholics entitled to their schools”, Opinion and Analysis, December 19th).

“There is a need for pluralism of education in Ireland so that parents have a choice, as far as possible, about what kind of school their children will attend,” he wrote. “This right to parental choice in education is recognised in most democracies and enshrined in our Constitution.

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