Catholic bishops have welcomed a decision by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to approve plans for two State-run community primary schools in Dublin.
However, Labour finance spokeswoman and Dublin West TD Joan Burton accused the Minister of studiously avoiding "key issues of integration and enrolment policies" in her announcement, while the multi-denominational Educate Together group was "very surprised at the sudden change of plans".
John Carr of the INTO has given the new proposals a cautious welcome.
The schools, which will be run by the Vocational Education Committee (VEC), mark a break with tradition whereby virtually all primary schools in Ireland were run by the Catholic Church.
Welcoming the Minister's decision, Bishop Leo O'Reilly, chair of the Education Commission of the Irish Bishops' Conference, said "the Catholic Church welcomes choice and diversity within the national education system".
"We believe that it is important to accommodate the rights and needs of people of different faith backgrounds, and of none, to an education which reflects, as far as possible, their sincerely-held convictions and values."
He reiterated the church's "firm intention to continue to provide Catholic schools to meet the needs of parents who wish their children to have a Catholic education".
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, said it had always been his view "that parents and communities should be provided with plurality of choice in our national school system, and today's announcement is, hopefully, the beginning of such a model for the country". He welcomed in particular the decision for the "provision for religious education and faith formation during the school day" in the new schools.
Repeating the Labour Party's call for a national convention on education, Ms Burton said the Minister should "consult with parents and communities in an area like Dublin 15 in an open and democratic way rather than, as she seems to be doing, consulting existing patrons behind closed doors".
Educate Together said it was "a matter of fact that the consultation referred to in the Minister's announcement has not realistically extended to Educate Together".
"As a recognised patron body that has indicated its intention to apply to open new multi- denominational primary schools in the three precise locations mentioned in the Minister's announcement, we consider that it is particularly regrettable that no consultation has taken place in relation to this sudden change of location and scale."
From September two new inter-denominational VEC schools will open on a pilot basis at the Phoenix Park and at Phibblestown in Co Dublin.
A third school, Scoil Choilm in Blanchardstown, run by the Catholic Church, will transfer to VEC patronage over the next two years.