Respecting wishes of parents should be priority in offering school choices

The choice of schools that parents have for their children has become a social and political hot potato, as pressure grows to remove requirements to be baptised to guarantee entry.

Richard Bruton said, quite correctly, in January that efforts have not been effective enough to divest the property of a local faith-based school to a multi-denominational patron in the dozens of areas with proven demand for choice.

But when he also said control would instead rest with the local bishop in deciding which school and what patron could take it over (on a lease-only basis), strong concerns were raised. With known opposition by the Catholic hierarchy to the model offered by Educate Together, in which preparation for Catholic sacraments and other faith-specific rites does not take place during school hours, the independent body feared it could be pushed out.