Roman Catholic Church leaders last night said they were shocked by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s target of transferring more than 1,500 church schools to other patrons.
And they argued that his start date for the transfers to begin in next January was too ambitious, writes Katherine Donnelly in today’s Irish Independent.
The minister is setting up a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism which will report by the end of October, with the possibility of transfers starting early next year. But church sources said the minister was going too far, too fast.
Around 3,000 primary schools — roughly 90pc of the total — are run by the church and the minister intends to cut this figure by 50pc to allow for greater diversity.
While they welcomed the forum, church sources said it was the church that first raised the issue of an over supply of Catholic schools and that they were finalising a lengthy period of consultation on the issue.
The Catholic Schools Partnership, which was established by the Irish Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Religious of Ireland, is to publish a position paper next week.
The results of its consultation process will be analysed by representatives from all dioceses at four regional assemblies in June 2011.
Sources say the paper will stress the issue of parental choice and is likely to call for pilot projects in a small number of areas where there is felt to be an over-supply of church schools.
“It’s not an easy matter to decide which school should close — there are also legal issues involved,” said one source.