EDUCATION:MINISTER FOR Education Batt O'Keeffe has said it was not within his remit to decide if religious organisations should be distanced from schools, following the revelations within the Murphy report.
Speaking in Limerick yesterday at Our Lady Queen of Peace School in Janesboro, Mr O’Keeffe said the prospect of removing all religious influences from schools is “not within my remit, nor indeed within my thought”.
“The Catholic Church and the Christian tradition has played an outstanding part in the education of all our children through the years. I think we should be maintaining that ethos and that tradition.
“It is not my intention to lose the outstanding nature of that tradition,” said the Minister to applause from pupils, parents teachers and members of the Presentation Order.
The Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) yesterday called for those named in the Murphy report be held accountable for their actions.
In a statement, the IPPN called for “personnel at any level, who have failed in any way in their child protection responsibilities, to immediately step aside to facilitate a full and thorough investigation”.
An IPPN survey found that over 80 per cent of principals indicated that bishops named in the Murphy report should not continue in their positions as school patrons.
The network said that despite the belated resignation of the Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray many primary school principals still have “deep rooted concerns” in relation to child protection in primary schools in Ireland.
The survey found that 2 per cent of schools did not have an up-to-date child protection policy and it said authorities need to redress this scenario “as a matter of urgency” and place current guidelines on a statutory footing.
In Limerick, Mr O’Keeffe visited Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom, the Our Lady Queen of Peace School in Janesboro, Ard Scoil Rís in the North Circular Road and St Nessan’s Community College in Moylish.
At Lady Queen of Peace School on the south side of the city, he announced that the predominantly girls primary school would be made co-educational from September. At Ard Scoil Rís, the Minister turned the sod on a €7 million extension and renovation project, and visited the new €12 million school building for St Nessan’s community college.
