THE CATHOLIC Church is ready to step aside from the management of schools in areas where there is little parental demand for Catholic education, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, is expected to tell a major Department of Education conference this morning.
Dr Martin is expected to repeat formally his commitment, first made in an Irish Times interview last year, that the Catholic Church is ready to divest control of schools in several areas of Dublin.
He will also acknowledge that the Catholic Church, for various historical reasons, is now over- represented in the management of primary schools.
At present, the church controls over 3,000 of the 3,200 primary schools in the State.
Today's conference is designed to design a new road map for the management of primary schools in a multicultural and more secular Ireland.
Specifically, the conference will consider the Government's plans for new State-run primary schools. In the past year, two State-run primary schools have been established for the first time. Both operate under the aegis of the Co Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC) in rapidly growing areas of Dublin.
The day-long conference at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham will be addressed by Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe and representatives of all the main school patronage bodies, including the multidenominational group Educate Together and the Islamic board of education.
The Co Dublin VEC has been praised for its management of the new State-run primary schools. But the issue of religious instruction has still to be clarified.
The Department of Education has already signalled that religious instruction in these schools will take place during school hours, but the Catholic Church and the other religions want guarantees that all pupils will receive instruction from suitably qualified staff.
