My wife can vote on school patronage issue, but I can’t

Niall Murray’s (Jan 22) news report of Professor Eamonn Conway’s accurate assessment that few parents want a change of school patronage deserves further analysis.

As a parent, who voted in the Killarney survey, I was dismayed to learn from Department officials that my vote would not be counted because it is my wife who receives child benefit.

Only half of parents, those in receipt of child benefit, have a right to vote. I was more dismayed to learn that the Department has concocted a protocol that forbids any formal meetings of parents to debate the merits of Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s very radical proposals for the Catholic Church to surrender 50% of its schools to other patrons.

I fear that democracy is dead.

Alan Whelan

Beaufort

Co Kerry