Jewish, Muslim and Catholic pupils in Kildare could soon have the opportunity to attend classes in the State's first primary school to operate under the joint patronage of all three faiths.
A high-level group, chaired by Dr Mary Shine Thompson, dean of research at St Patrick's College Drumcondra, Dublin, has spent the last two years examining the possibility of establishing such a school in the Kildare area.
The group is to hold a public meeting on Monday evening to establish demand among parents for the setting up of the Intercultural, Interdenominational Primary School (IIPS).
This would operate under the patronage of the Catholic, Islamic and Progressive Jewish Communities and would focus on the Newbridge, Naas, Kilcullen and Kildare town areas.
The group includes representatives of the Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr James Moriarty, Imam Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland and Dr Charles Middleburgh, Rabbi of the Progressive Jewish Community in Ireland.
Dr Shine Thompson stressed that the proposed school, which it is hoped could be established in time for the next academic year, would complement rather than compete with schools operated by the multi-denominational Educate Together. "We have a new Ireland and new Irish. Our demographics are changing very fast, one thing we need is to prepare for change," Dr Shine Thompson, who chairs the group in a personal capacity, told The Irish Times.
"It is also important to develop an element of choice within the education sector. The place where the school is being set up is also crying out for more schools."
Late last year, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin approved plans for two State-run community primary schools in Dublin.
The schools, which will be run by the Vocational Education Committee, mark a break with tradition whereby the vast majority of primary schools in Ireland were run by the Catholic Church.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education yesterday said that it had received a notification of intention to apply for the new IIPS model of school.
"It is open to all patron organisations to apply to establish new schools, through the usual mechanisms set out under the new schools advisory commission," she said.
While plans for the Intercultural, Interdenominational Primary School school are still at an early stage, if approved it is envisaged that it would allow children to be taught about their own faiths during school hours, while also learning about the other faiths under whose patronage it operated.
The public meeting will seek to gauge demand among parents for the new school, which it is believed would need an enrolment of at least 27 pupils in order to be established in time for the next academic year in September.
The meeting will take place at 8pm on Monday at the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge.