Legal profession ‘only likely beneficiary’ of school bill

A bill by the Labour Party that seeks to make it harder for schools to use religion to select pupils might benefit nobody but the legal profession, a Catholic schools’ body claims.

It was one of a number of groups representing religious-run schools to suggest to the Oireachtas Education Committee that the legislation is premature, as wider school-admissions legislation is being considered, and Education Minister Richard Bruton has begun consultation on possible limits or removal of links between religion and enrolment.

The Labour bill proposes that a school would be guilty of discrimination under equal status law if it could not prove that refusing admission to a child who is not of the school’s religious ethos is necessary to maintain that ethos. If a school does not have enough places for all applicants, a child o f a different faith or none who lives in the school’s catchment area would have to be given preference over someone of the school’s religion but who lives outside the area.