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THE CHAIRMAN of the Catholic bishops commission on education has expressed surprise at a speech by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe last Friday in which he said his department “will shortly be providing an initial list of about 10 urban areas that can be used to test the concept of reducing the number of Catholic schools”.

Speaking in Maynooth yesterday, as the Irish Bishops’ Conference began its three-day spring meeting, Bishop Leo O’Reilly said that last November, at a meeting in Dublin with the bishops, the Minister and his officials agreed the Department of Education would undertake research on areas where a reduction in the number of Catholic schools could be tested, and would then get back to the bishops.