THE main Christian churches and the Muslim community have come together in an unprecedented alliance to attack the Education Bill for undermining the right of religious bodies to run their own schools.
The Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, responded last night by stating her intention that the Bill should "support the ability" of religious school owners "to effectively maintain the ethos and traditions of the schools which they hold in trust". She said she was happy to meet the religious school owners "with a view to addressing their reservations and concerns".
She reiterated her commitment to "a diversity of school types including denominational schools, both new and existing". It is expected that Ms Breathnach, conscious that a church State clash over education could be highly damaging on the eve of an election, will facilitate an early meeting with the religious bodies.
At a joint press conference in Dublin earlier yesterday a senior Church of Ireland education spokesman, the Ven Gordon Linney, read a strongly worded statement which had been agreed by education representatives of the Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist
Church, the Quakers and the Muslim Community, all of whom were present.
Archdeacon Linney said he did not recall "such an assembly of religious representatives on any issue in my lifetime in this country. We hope that this alone will underline the seriousness of what we want to say."
He said those at the press conference, who represented religious school owners, patrons and trustees, were "greatly disturbed" by aspects of the Education Bill.
"Our church schools and other religious educational foundations are really entrusted to us by those - who went before us, and it is our duty to hand them on to those who succeed us in circumstances which are consistent with their foundation.
"The Education Bill before the Dail at present undermines substantially the ability of patrons, trustees and owners to effectively maintain the ethos and traditions of the schools which they hold in trust."
The secretary of the education commission of the Catholic Hierarchy, Father Dan O'Connor, said the Catholic Church was "of the same mind" as the Church of Ireland on this issue, and the bishops would be making a statement at the conclusion of their spring meeting in Maynooth tomorrow.
Archdeacon Linney quoted one legal opinion which said the Bill represented "a sort of takeover of the school by the board of management, which now no longer will derive its authority to manage from the patron, owner or trustees, but from this piece of legislation in the immediate and ultimately from the Minister of the day".
The Bill "severely restricts the power and the rights of the patron, who will be required to hand over the executive responsibility for running the school to a board of management which is subject to the Minister".
Archdeacon Linney said the patron "has no real say and no power of veto. In fact nowhere is the role of the patron defined."
In the absence of agreement between the educational partners, the Minister would now have the power to impose a board structure on a school, he said. "It is only a matter of time before the religious communities are minority voices in their own schools. This has enormous implications for minorities especially, but ultimately for us all."
He called the Bill "a seriously flawed piece of legislation which will very definitely marginalise the religious communities in the field of education, and will very likely lead to a diminution of the spiritual and moral development of young people which accords with the wishes of the vast majority of parents".
Archdeacon Linney said the churches did "not want to go down the road of a constitutional challenge" to the Bill. He hoped their views would be "listened to and heard" by the Government when it came to amendments at committee stage.