PAUL METIKARIAN, MAYO:"If you ask for your child to opt out of religious education, they are immediately different. Kids don't want to be different. They want to be like their friends. The schools in my area are all Catholic schools. My daughter is three and I'm getting worried.
"I'm an atheist. People in this country don't seem to believe that there is such a thing. If you're atheist you're just an eejit. Some people say: 'What harm will it do?' but when you come down to it, it's a human rights issue.
"If you refused to provide a Muslim school on the basis of 'what harm?' and made children attend a Catholic school against the wishes of the parents, everyone would be up in arms. There is no respect for people in my situation.
"The Government should be providing education, but at the moment they are outsourcing it. They are outsourcing it to Catholic and Protestant churches. People give out about outsourcing everywhere else. Why not about this?"
SHIRLEY O'SHEA, CORK
"I'm a Catholic and so is my husband. I just want to have a choice of schools. I love the idea of a multidenominational education and I actually got involved with Educate Together here in Cork.
"I heard about the schools from my sister-in-law and I was just very impressed. Our school is on hold now until the department decides whether it's going to support us in setting up a school or not.
"I'm not against a denominational education. I'm not anti-Catholic or anything like it. I'd just love to offer the option of a multidenominational education to my own children. I'm not snobby about education, I just think that it's an opportunity that all children should have.
"I don't know that parents are really taken seriously in all this. People are willing to do an awful lot to get the education they want for their children."
DAVID MURTAGH, DUBLIN
"I was never particularly religious. I was just one of these lazy people, I suppose. I don't know anything about multidenominational education, so I sent my daughter to the local Catholic national school.
"I was really impressed, to be honest. There was a huge mix of kids in the school and a real effort made with them. It was very progressive. They used to put signs up saying 'welcome' in lots of different languages. The parish priest had worked abroad and seemed to be very forward-thinking.
"Of course there were children of all sorts of religions in the school. As far as I understand it, they did their homework during religion class. One of my child's best friends is a Muslim and I remember being really impressed on the day the class made their Confirmation. The parish priest, who was also chairman of the board of management, had a party in his garden after the ceremony and all the children, Catholic or not, came along, so it was a celebration for everyone. No youngster was left out."
