An opportunity to drive change on school patronage

School patronage, specifically the continuing domination of national school patronage — still around 90% — by the Catholic Church is one of the hotly-contested grounds in our evolving society.

It is, as some of the Catholic hierarchy have recognised, irrational that in a country where the once reliable and near-absolute commitment to Catholicism is, at best, on the wane that this near-monopoly continues.

Despite that, there has been persistent stonewalling from some conservative Catholics who, arguing that what we have we hold, suggest that a shortage of school places is the real issue.

These issues come together in the coming weeks as parents in 12 towns or suburbs have until mid-January to choose between patrons offering to open primary schools next autumn. It has never been satisfactorily explained why these decisions should be confined to parents, this is, after all, a social rather than an educational issue.

Neither are the tax obligations imposed to fund education confined to parents.

Those who wish to see school patronage better reflect today’s Ireland must use this opportunity to drive change.