Will democracy prevail in schools’ handover?

When he was Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn initiated a programme to change school patronage, a system that no longer reflects this society, its beliefs or practices.

Mr Quinn was supported by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin and, supposedly, the cabinet.

Yet, just a few years later, Mr Quinn is counting the days before he retires from politics and the school patronage system remains largely unchanged. The Catholic Church, surely one of the most discredited institutions in this country — and that’s a pretty high bar — retains its seemingly eternal and absolute grip on primary education, despite the fact that sincere religious observance has become the exception rather than the rule.