LABOUR EDUCATION spokesman Ruairi Quinn called for the ending of the requirement on students in teacher-training colleges to participate in religious studies.

He called on Minister for Education Mary Coughlan to request the colleges, which were in receipt of €50 million in taxpayers’ money, to explicitly provide a freedom of conscience option for student-teachers. He said this should be done by way of a formal letter.

When Ms Coughlan replied that it was not an issue which had arisen, Mr Quinn replied: “You cannot say that.” She said she did not believe that she should issue a diktat to the colleges on the issue. “I think it is a matter of working together and seeing if there are certain procedures that need to be set up to allow this to happen.”

Mr Quinn said he was not asking the Minister to issue a diktat, adding that he was asking her to act on the information which the colleges had volunteered to her and the department.

He said it should be an “on the menu item” for a student to be able to say that they did not want to participate in the faith formation component of the curriculum offered.

The Minister, said Mr Quinn, should invite the colleges to make explicit what they had told her was implicit in their handling of the particular issue.She said it had not arisen as a key issue for student-teachers. “I have no problem in supporting this,” she added.

When Mr Quinn suggested that “hypocrisy becomes sanction” on the issue, the Minister said it was important to reiterate that there was not a problem involved.

Ms Coughlan said primary schools were overwhelmingly denominational and continued to play a significant role in their pupils’ faith formation.

“It may be of interest to the deputy to learn that all colleges have indicated that the issue of an exemption being sought by a student-teacher in relation to the religious education model has not arisen in practice.”