A Kerry school has enrolled just nine pupils after a patronage transfer from the Catholic bishop to the local education and training board.

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.

A Fine Gael Dáil colleague of Education Minister Richard Bruton insists the decision of Catholic Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne to lease a school near Killarney to a new patron was in line with local decisions.

A Catholic Kerry school with no pupils is to open under one multi-denominational patron in September while another has been looking for accommodation since 2013.