Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese challenges TDs who criticised slow pace of change in Catholic control of schools

Criticisms of the slow pace of change in divestment of schools from Catholic control, made in the Dáil on Thursday, have been forcefully challenged in a statement from Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese. “This impatience can often become a desire to impose desired outcomes, regardless of local views,” it said.

“The Catholic patrons, as bishops and pastors, are not minded to simply impose solutions on to communities. Minister Foley and her Department are of the same view. Reconfiguration is not an abstract issue, but one that is rooted in the concrete realities of the lives of people and their communities, and is a process of consensus building,” it said.

Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday Labour spokesman on Education Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said “the archdiocese can press all the buttons it wants and then get what it wants, which is the status quo” and that “these processes are being set up to fail, not by the Minister, but by those with a vested interested in preserving the status quo”.

The Dublin Bay North TD said “those whose agenda is to keep the status quo” knew “what to say, and they know about information and disinformation. They know how to shrug their shoulders when questions are asked. They know about timelines being truncated so that people feel under pressure to make a decision. They know that the issue of the mixing of genders is being overlapped with the divestment from one patron to another”.

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Longford Westmeath Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy said that “clearly, people want this change, but whenever it is proposed, it does not appear to be responded to positively”, while Carlow Kilkenny Fianna Fáil TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor said: “I agree with previous speakers. We are living in a diverse society.”

Responding, Minister for Education Ms Foley said: “I want to be very clear at the outset. There is to be no bullying or coercion here.” She acknowledged that “in some instances there was no desire for change, and in others, there was huge desire for change. I absolutely accept that there must be a balanced approach.” She recalled that “the programme for Government contains a commitment to expand the plurality of our schools to reflect the full breadth of society and improve parental choice.” Among those commitments was “to achieve the target of at least 400 multidenominational primary schools by 2030”, she said.

Referring to “comments made under parliamentary privilege in Dáil Éireann” on Thursday, the Dublin Archdiocese statement said it wished “to confirm that it, along with several other dioceses in the State, engaged in a spirit of partnership with a Department of Education pilot reconfiguration process. In Dublin, this involved substantial engagement with 29 school communities to explore the option of leaving Catholic patronage for alternative multi-denominational patronage.”

This process, it said, “was led by an independent facilitator, appointed by the Department of Education” and had been “entered into in good faith by both the Archdiocese and the Department. As in other dioceses, Archbishop [Dermot] Farrell, as the local diocesan patron, engaged fully with the process, providing the independent facilitators with every aid and assistance requested of him.”

The statement also noted how Minister for Education Norma Foley had confirmed in the Dáil on Thursday “the informed view of her Department as to the full co-operation of the Catholic patrons in their participation in the process”.

However, it said that “for some, the reconfiguration process can only be judged a success if school communities conform to the demands of others outside of their communities for change” while “their tangible impatience with the pace of evolution in education is evident.” It was “not uncommon for people engaged with a change process to be impatient when progress is slow”, it said.