Proposal to limit Church’s role in schools

Removing Communion and Confirmation preparation from the school day, and changes to laws that allow schools restrict places to children of their own faith, have been recommended in a blueprint for the primary education system.

The advisory group that has overseen the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector also says about 50 schools should be handed to new patrons.

It would be the first phase of divesting of the Church’s role in the country’s 3,300 primary schools, almost 90% of which are under Catholic patronage.