Greg DalyGovt dragging its feet, delaying new patrons
Some parishes are left carrying the can with expensive heating and security bills for schools long after the buildings have been made available to the State for non-religious schools, it has been claimed.
The Irish Catholic spoke with a number of Church representatives who expressed frustration that the Department of Education is slow to respond and take responsibility for buildings vacated by local parishes in a bid to provide more non-religious schools.
Fianna Fáil TD Colm Keaveney said he was “personally aware of at least three schools in the Dublin diocese that have been offered for divestment and vacated”.
However, he criticised the Government for the fact that “the department has so far failed to complete the process and hand the schools over to new patrons,” pointing out that, “these
schools, having been offered in good faith, now remain a financial burden on the parishes in terms of the cost of their upkeep and security.”
It comes amid growing frustration amongst some involved in Catholic education that the Government is trying to place all the blame on local parishes for the fact that the State has failed to provide enough schools to meet the needs of parents who do not want their children to attend a faith-based school.
Challenged
Mr Keaveney has challenged Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan to explain the delays and subsequent financial burden on parishes. However, in a written reply to his Dáil question, the minister said her department is considering offers of a number of school buildings but said “as the matter is the subject of ongoing discussions, I am not in a position to provide any further details at this time”.
Mr Keaveney, a deputy for Galway East, said “there’s a continual line being pushed that the Church is somehow solely responsible for the divestment process when it is often the case that the State is contributing to the delays”.
He pointed to the fact that “in some cases Government backbenchers, including Labour TDs, have lobbied the minister to prevent divestment as they found that parents in their constituencies opposed it”.
He also accused the Government of trying to hide behind divestment as a way of distracting parents from the fact that there are inadequate school places. The handover of some Catholic schools, he said, will “not do one solitary thing to solve the problem of capacity in our education system”.
The former Labour Party chairman, who was expelled from the parliamentary party for refusing to back crippling cuts to carers, insisted that only investment by the Government can vindicate parents’ constitutional rights with regard to their children’s education. “A greater plurality is needed in the school system,” he said, but “the responsibility for that does not primarily fall on the Church but is a matter for the State.
“While the current focus of debate remains on divestment, it misses the broader need for capital investment in new schools,” Mr Keaveney said.
