Call for minority religion schools

THE Government could face a constitutional challenge from Muslims, Methodists and other minority religious practitioners in Ireland unless it makes greater efforts to help set up multi-denominational schools.

Educate Together, an organisation for multi-denominational schools, said the Census 2002 figures showed the number of Irish people who are neither Catholic nor Protestant has doubled to 3% of the population since 1991.

Another 3.5% of the population said they had no religion, while those calling themselves Catholic fell from 92% to 88%.

But according to Educate Together chief executive Paul Rowe, 99% of Irish primary schools are still under the patronage of one or other of the two largest churches.

“Parents are effectively being compelled to send their children to Catholic schools. It would be open to any parent to seek to have their constitutional right upheld not to send their children to a school which is against their conscience,” said Mr Rowe.

He suggested this could be avoided if the Government set up a network of schools which cherish people of all backgrounds.

However, existing Educate Together multi-denominational schools are already finding it difficult to get official recognition from the Department of Education, because they must arrange their own accommodation.

One of six Educate Together schools granted recognition last month has run into planning difficulties over its proposed location in Wicklow town.

Minister for Education Noel Dempsey has pointed in the past to the price tag attached to wider choice for parents. The cost of permanent accommodation for new schools recognised in recent years will be around 400 million, he told a recent conference.

Last night, a Department of Education spokesperson said the fact that six of the 10 new schools due to open in September are multi-denominational is a sign that schools are being funded where support for them is demonstrated.

There are more than 30 such schools around the country and they are growing faster than the number of denominational schools being opened over the last three years.

There are more than 20,000 Presbyterians, 19,000 Muslims and 10,400 members of the Orthodox Church living in Ireland.

The Muslim community in Ireland, which has increased from just 4,000 in 1991, has two primary schools in Dublin and is hoping to open a secondary school in the capital in the near future.

Lesley Carter, a recent convert to Islam who works at the Islamic Cultural Centre, said much is being done to integrate Muslims.

“A lot of Muslim families send children to multi-denominational and Christian schools and they are very happy with the quality of teaching there,” she said.