Cathal Barry
Govt accused of reneging on deal with faith schools
A senior Church official has accused politicians of hypocrisy over their criticism of Catholic schools.
Fr Tom Deenihan also hit out at successive Governments for reneging on a 1997 deal that would guarantee the ethos of faith schools in return for the Church having fewer representatives on school Boards of Management.
The head of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) told The Irish Catholic that politicians regularly slate Catholic schools at a national level but rarely criticise such schools in their own constituencies because they know they are doing a good job.
Fr Deenihan pointed out that Catholic schools are already very inclusive. He cited research showing that Catholic schools have more than their fair share of pupils from different faith backgrounds and none, pupils with special needs, and Traveller children.
Speaking to this newspaper ahead of the CPSMA’s Annual General Meeting this weekend, Fr Deenihan warned that Catholic schools were “becoming tired of bearing the brunt of criticism by politicians who target such schools so regularly that one could be forgiven for thinking that there was no other issue in Irish society, be it economical, health, justice or welfare”.
Contribution
“We must educate our politicians as to the contribution that our Catholic schools are making to their constituencies and, above all, we must make it clear that broad, sweeping statements about Catholic schools have local implications,” he said.
Fr Deenihan also hit out at the Government for reneging on a deal that was struck by bishops with the State in 1997, ahead of the 1998 Education Act, that would guarantee the ethos of Church-run schools.
The Church gave up places on the Boards of Management of schools where it is patron in return for a legally binding guarantee about ethos to be codified in a ‘Deed of Variation’. The Deed has never been signed.
Fr Deenihan explained that in Catholic primary schools, the patron has two of eight places on Boards of Management. However, in community schools and in schools and colleges under the patronage of the Education and Training Boards (ETB), the trustees have six of 12 board members, while in voluntary secondary schools, the trustees have four of eight nominees.
Explaining that the agreement “for this generous and significant gesture by the bishops as patrons was an undertaking by the Department that a Deed of Variation would be signed, guaranteeing the ethos of these schools”, Fr Deenihan noted that “some 19 years after the original undertaking and the Deed is still not signed”.
“In the meantime, new boards have been constituted again with the reduced representation. That factor is conveniently but consistently ignored and overlooked,” he said.