The Government has no plans to abolish State support for private fee-paying schools, despite new figures indicating an increasing number of parents are choosing to send their children to such schools, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, has said.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Mr Dempsey said yesterday he believed the growth in the number of parents opting to pay for a private education was because Irish people had become wealthier in recent years.
As a result, parents who no longer have to pay third-level fees were instead paying for second-level education.
"There is not any huge demand within the education system, or indeed within society generally for huge changes in this area," Mr Dempsey said.
"In the morning . . . if all of them declared that they were going to become non-fee-paying schools then I would be paying out almost the equivalent of the €85 million in direct capitation fees, a fee per pupil, which I do not pay at the moment to the fee-paying schools."
Last year, The Irish Times revealed that more than 20,000 places in the free second-level school sector in Dublin were unfilled, largely because of a surge in demand for private education and grind schools.
According to the latest figures, this trend is continuing, while enrolments at fee-paying schools have increased.
But Mr Dempsey said this was due primarily to the location of these schools and the withdrawal of certain religious orders from education provision.
"Most of the schools that have falling student numbers have falling student numbers because of their location, because of the fact that the Christian Brothers in particular, but other religious, are withdrawing from education," he said.
"I think that . . . our public system, when you take it out of the geographic location of south Co Dublin, does stand up well to scrutiny and opposed to fee-paying schools."
With a Cabinet reshuffle imminent, Mr Dempsey confirmed he wants to stay in his current job.
However, he had "no doubt" that were he not to remain in the post, somebody else could complete the "huge amount of work" still to do.
Earlier, the Minister for Education also disclosed that the name of the Leaving Certificate will be changed to the Senior Certificate. This is expected to take place within the next few years.
Ms Jan O'Sullivan, Labour Party spokeswoman, said the party was calling for a full review of all aspects of the system of financial support for private schools.
She said that Mr Dempsey had reneged on a commitment he had made to instigate such a review.
"Tradition and practice cannot justify the subsidising of social selection," she said.
"Parents are, of course, entitled to select whatever school they believe will best benefit their child.
"But the payment of generous financial support to exclusive private schools that are not open to the majority of pupils is difficult, in principle, to justify," Ms O'Sullivan said.
Mr Dempsey subsequently confirmed that such a review was ongoing, although he said he "wouldn't be holding breath" for a final result on the matter.