School Patronage

While I thank the Minister of State for taking my questions, I am saddened that the Minister herself is not here because this is a very important topic. I want to discuss the primary school survey. It was supposed to give parents a voice in the future of their children's education but I am concerned that while those questions have been asked, in some cases, their views are being ignored. I have been contacted by a group called Education Equality, which has been contacted by numerous parents around the country who are concerned that schools have completed the survey but parents have not been communicated with and consultations have not happened. There has been no meaningful follow up. This raises serious questions about the validity of that survey and what is going to happen with regard to parental choice and reconfiguration in this country. The first Private Members' business I tabled in May of 2025 was about that choice and I feel very passionately about this issue. It is a personal quest of mine because my family does not fit into the ethos of the majority of schools in my neighbourhood. We are not Catholic or Church of Ireland. We are Unitarian and we believe very firmly that religion belongs in the home and one's place of worship, not in school. It was very difficult for us, as new parents, to figure out what we were going to do for our children. We did not want them to go to a school where they would be excluded for a part of the school day. Despite the fact that there is supposed to be a withdrawal system within schools to allow children not to be indoctrinated into a religion to which they do not belong, that is not the reality on the ground. For me, parental choice is a really important issue, as is the option for parents to send their children to a multidenominational school where they will not feel like an outsider. That is why I brought that Private Members' business forward. I was promised the sun, moon and stars and that the Government was going to make sure that it would all be okay. I want to go into some more detail on the survey now but I am not going to name any school. In one school, 54% voted in favour of multidenominational education but parents reported receiving just one communication in June of this year, with no subsequent consultation. In another school, 75% voted in favour of multidenominational education but parents report that there has been no communication or consultation. In yet another school, 71% voted in favour and the situation is the same. The schools I am referring to here are in Dublin. The figure in another school was 68%. A school in another county recorded a vote of 60%. That school was not happy with the answer and actually re-ran the survey to get a different answer, as happened with the Nice and Lisbon treaties. That is not what this survey set out to do. Another school has actually indicated that only a certain percentage of parents voted - 39% of the population of the school responded to the survey - so it has declared the results null and void and is not taking the matter any further. It has said that only 39% of parents answered the survey, with the vast majority not answering. The answer was not what the school wanted so it is not doing anything. I have serious questions as to how thorough this process is and how exactly parents are being listened to. I have so many questions but I will be easy on the Minister of State because he is here to represent the Minister and I appreciate that. What level of oversight is the Department providing to make sure that parents are not simply being asked and then having their responses completely disregarded? That is my main question. The timeline is very short now, with a deadline of 31 October for schools and patrons to notify the Department if they want to change. If they are not even consulting with their school communities, based on their survey results, how is the Department going to ensure that this happens? What is the Department going to do to make sure that schools are genuinely listening to parents?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As she said herself, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, who is grateful for the opportunity to set out the next steps in relation to work on the primary school survey. The Department's primary school survey, the largest of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland, was school-specific and through its results, provides evidence of parental demand and preferences for different types of primary school provision. Through the survey, the Department has obtained clear information on the preferences of parents and guardians about the primary schools that their children currently attend or will attend in the coming years. The survey has gathered information on a number of important areas of primary school provision, including: language of instruction - Irish or English; patronage and ethos; and single-sex or co-educational school provision. In early June, the Department issued primary schools with their school-specific results and explanatory information. Primary school boards of management have been asked to share their survey results and explanatory information with their school communities, to review their survey results and to engage with their school communities, including parents, and their local communities, including parents with children not yet in school, in considering their next steps. The Department wrote to all primary schools to provide guidance on the school community engagement process and held a number of online information sessions for board of management chairpersons and principals so that they would be clear on the importance of the school community engagement. The Government is clear that the future direction of primary schools arising from the primary school survey work should be led by school communities themselves, who should then engage with their patrons and the Department. Schools have been asked to inform their patrons, using their usual communication channels, and the Department, using an online expression of interest form, if the school wishes to change configuration arising from this work. The Department will support schools that are included in the first group to change configuration arising from this work, including by assigning a dedicated contact to support each school through the process. A range of additional supports will also be made available to assist schools, with the first changes arising from the process expected to be introduced from September 2027. The Government is committed to increasing the number of schools that teach through Irish and to also increasing the number of multidenominational schools in order to provide greater diversity of choice to meet parental demand. This work presents an opportunity for primary schools to consider their future and how they can best support the educational needs of their pupils, parents and local community. I strongly encourage primary schools to carefully consider this opportunity.

I thank the Minister of State for that response, which I appreciate. One of the things that I called for during the aforementioned Private Members' business debate was independent oversight to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure that school communities had a meaningful say. This is where there is a challenge because I do not think that has happened in this scenario for the schools that have been in contact. Is the Department going to collate, compare and contrast the data that was collected by the parental survey with what the school actually does? If there is a discrepancy, how is the Department going to ensure that it is rectified? Where is the weight in that? If 70% of parents, for example, said that they wanted to change to multidenominational provision but the school has not notified the Department by 31 October, what is the Department going to do? What is the mechanism against which that whole matrix that has been set up is going to be offset? If that number of parents have said they want a change and the school is not changing, what mechanism does the Department have to ensure it happens? If it does not have any mechanism, surely there was no point to doing the survey. If the survey is null and void, why are we having this conversation? We have been talking about reconfiguration - it used to be called different things a long time ago - since the early 2000s. When the Central Statistics Office, CSO, data is saying that more and more parents are not baptising their children, are not getting married in the Catholic Church and are moving more to a secular society, why are our schools not reflecting that? What is the point in doing this exercise if there is going to be no ability to ensure that the survey that was done is followed through? I was guaranteed the survey was as robust as possible and that there could be no cheating, as such. How are we going to make sure that the notification to the Department that the school wants to change is followed through?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. As I said, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for education. The Government is fully committed to providing opportunities for children to attend multidenominational schools and Gaelscoileanna where parents and school communities want this. Programme for Government 2025: Securing Ireland's Future includes a commitment to seek to increase choice for parents by ensuring that families can access multidenominational, non-denominational and faith-based education. The programme for Government also includes a commitment to establish Gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí where there is demand and support for parents choosing Irish-medium education for their children. The Government recognises the importance of parental choice and is committed to delivering an education system of the highest quality where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. Supporting schools to change from teaching through English to teaching through Irish, or from denominational patronage to multidenominational patronage, using their existing school buildings, is a very effective method of providing greater choice for parents and communities. The Government considers it important that all primary school boards of management are given the time and space to reflect carefully on their survey results and to engage fully with parents and the wider school community before considering whether to request to be included in the first group of schools to change configuration arising from this process. To that end, the Department is writing to schools today to advise that it has been decided to extend the timeframe for schools to inform the Department and their patron of their wish to change configuration arising from the primary school survey work. The timeframe for receipt of expressions of interest from schools has been extended from 31 October to 30 November 2026. The Department of Education and Youth will continue to support and engage with schools as they consider their individual results and next steps. Boards of management can contact the Department directly if they have queries on the primary school survey next steps at schoolsurvey@education.gov.ie.