Martin welcomes patronage change

THE transfer of some primary schools from the patronage of the Catholic hierarchy faces inevitable opposition but it is time for movement, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said last night.

Welcoming this week’s establishment by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn of a forum on the patronage of the country’s 3,200 primary schools, he said it would be foolish not to note that the process will encounter many forms of resistance.

“These may range from resistance to the idea of fostering greater plurality in patronage models, to resistance from individual communities, to resistance simply to any change from the status quo,” he said.