More coordinated approach needed, says report into sacking
Tomás Ó Dúlaing was dismissed from his post at Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg in Dunboyne, Co Meath, in July for disciplinary breaches. At the centre of the dispute was Mr Ó Dúlaing’s efforts to prepare Catholic children at the interdenominational school for First Communion outside normal school hours.
The school’s patronage body, An Foras Pátrúnachta, asked the Marino Institute of Education to examine the issue of religious education at the school last April. The report will be published today.
Among its findings are that there was a serious breakdown in communications between all sides in the dispute.
A source said the report deals mainly with issues at the Dunboyne school. But it also looks at issues for the 41 other gaelscoileanna under the patronage of An Foras, among them six multi-denominational and 30 non-denominational schools, they said.
“It recommends that there should be a full-time official in An Foras to provide support for schools in terms of teaching religion. There is also a proposal that an education office funded by the Government be set up within the body,” they said.
Two members of the Marino Institute’s Centre for Education Services met all sides, spoke to parents in Dunboyne, and approached the local Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops for their views on the issue.
The report was presented to An Foras Pátrúnachta during the summer and the Irish National Teachers Organisation has been seeking its publication ever since.
The INTO is preparing to take an unfair dismissal case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal on behalf of Mr Ó Dúlaing, who has since been appointed to an interdenominational school in north Dublin.
The union will meet members from the three other Foras Pátrúnachta interdenominational schools next week to discuss the issue of religious education.
Some parents have withdrawn their children from the Meath school, which had 112 pupils on the roll book last year.
