THE Catholic bishops and Progressive Democrats leader have become the latest to attack the Education Bill. Ms Mary Harney called it the death knell for denominational education as we have known it".
In a statement following their spring meeting in Maynooth, the Hierarchy said the Bill seriously diminishes" the ability of Catholic school owners to fulfil their role to "maintain, promote and hand on" the ethos, values and traditions of Catholicism.
The recognition given to the owners and patrons of Catholic schools in the Bill was "either casual or constrained by regulations made by the Minister for Education". If it became law, it would result in "the creation of a system of education which is not consistent with the religious and cultural values of the vast majority of Irish people".
The Minister was "proposing to regulate in considerable detail virtually all aspects of the education system, particularly in church linked schools which do not have the legislative protection enjoyed by the vocational and community schools".
The proposed regional education boards would "exercise excessive control over church linked schools". At a time when schools were still "very inadequately funded", the bishops questioned "the value of setting up another ... layer of bureaucracy".
The press spokesman for the Hierarchy, Dr Thomas Flynn, said it did not approve of the education boards, but "would not go to the block" to stop them. When asked what the bishops would go to the block for, he replied: "To protect the ethos of the schools."
A constitutional challenge to the legislation was "the last thing we want to do - we'll go down every road before that". He hoped that satisfactory changes could be made to the Bill at committee stage through the discussions the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, promised publicly earlier this week.
Dr Flynn said he had recently told the Taoiseach of the church's concerns.
Sister Eileen Randles, secretary of the Catholic Primary School Managers Association, said the references to the powers of the Minister for Education, mentioned in almost every article of the Bill, were "like the responses in a litany".
She expected the White Paper's guarantee of the continuation of denominational schools, absent from the Bill, would be reinstated in an amendment.
Meanwhile, Ms Harney issued a statement attacking Ms Breathnach for being "hell bent on wrecking the education system".
"The Bill represents an ideological, State centred view of education which is completely at variance with our traditional values," she added. It represented "one of the most comprehensive demolition jobs ever proposed for autonomy, choice and pluralism in education. It would, if enacted, mark the beginning of the end for denominational education in particular and private, non State education in general."
"Every State assisted school will slowly become a State dominated satellite of a regional education board."
In particular, the Bill proposed to take away from the owners of denominational or voluntary schools the right to appoint the principal and other teachers.
Ms Harney said the Bill should be withdrawn, "otherwise it must become a central issue in the election".