One of the most influential orders in the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, is to remain in education despite moves by other orders to withdraw from the management of schools.
The order is directly involved in the running of five second-level schools, including Clongowes, Gonzaga and Belvedere. It also has links with three other schools. There is "no question of ceding ownership or withdrawal at the present time" from these schools, it says.
The five schools directly owned by the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus are: Belvedere College, Dublin; Gonzaga College, Dublin; Colaiste Iognaid, Co Galway; Crescent College Comprehensive, Co Limerick; and Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare.
The order is also planning to survey pupils to see if the principles of Jesuit education are being successfully implemented. It will also seek information on the social backgrounds of pupils. The Jesuits may introduce changes if the survey indicates that the order is reinforcing social inequalities.
The debate about religious orders changing their role in second-level education intensified after the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) last year called for submissions from Catholic-run schools on future models of management.
CORI, the umbrella body for Catholic orders in the State, is hoping changes can be introduced gradually, and is currently in discussions with the Department of Education and Science.
Several large orders are expected to set up new models of management, or to change the composition of the trusts which run their schools, such as by including more lay people.
The Holy Ghost Fathers, who run five secondary schools including Blackrock College and Rockwell in Co Tipperary, have already signalled their intention to allow a company, consisting mainly of lay people, to manage their schools and guard their Catholic ethos.
The Jesuits, probably the most influential Catholic educators in Ireland along with the Christian Brothers, have yet to make a submission to CORI, but have no immediate plans to alter the existing structure within their schools radically. However, not everything will be standing still.
Mr Jim O'Connor, the Jesuits' education delegate, who has day-to-day responsibility for the schools, concedes that with falling vocations all the order's schools will have lay principals in the future. Two of the five schools, Colaiste Iognaid in Galway and Gonzaga College in Dublin, already have.
He also points out that the order recently established a 10-member board to advise the Jesuit Provincial, Father Gerry O'Hanlon SJ, on educational issues.
Seven of the board members are lay people, and Mr O'Connor says the provincial will bring "more serious issues" to them in the next few years. He says the board is a "seed" which could grow in the future.
He explains that several years ago the order "developed its structures" and added many lay people to its boards of management. The lay members now outnumber the Jesuit representatives.
The declining number of young Jesuits does not mean the order has to scale back its existing role. "We already have a critical mass of lay people who share in the Ignatian [named after founder St Ignatius of Loyola] approach."
He says lay people were once regarded as "simply technical assistants" within the Jesuit system, but now form a central part of its mission.
In financial terms, he admits, the ageing profile of the order's clergy places a burden on resources. He says the order's property and land are its only real assets and he does not rule out some of this being sold in the future to meet commitments. "Who knows what the future will bring?" he asks.
Among the past pupils are two former Taoisigh, Mr John Bruton and Dr Garret FitzGerald, the businessmen Dr Tony O'Reilly and Dr Michael Smurfit; the banker and former politician Mr Peter Sutherland; the U2 manager, Mr Paul McGuinness, and the poet Paul Durcan.
With their fee-paying schools charging approximately £2,000 a year, the order has been accused of fostering elitism.
Even James Joyce, a Jesuit pupil, summed up in A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man the attraction for some in sending their sons to the order's schools. "They'll [the Jesuits] be of service to him in after years. Those are the fellows that can get you a position," Stephen Dedalus' father says firmly.
The schools have been trying to broaden their social base in recent years, according to Mr O'Connor.
"Take the example of Belvedere. It is in the centre of the city, and when I first worked there in 1976 we had no kids from the area enrolled. Now about 8 per cent of the intake is from the area. So things are changing," he says.
The demand for the five schools is extremely healthy, with parents inquiring about places when their children are only infants. The schools do not choose pupils by academic results, preferring an interview process.
Brothers of existing and past pupils, and the sons of former pupils, are given priority.