Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has defended the right of schools to protect their own ethos but she said a new community school model she intends to introduce will welcome children of all religions, backgrounds and races "without question".
Ms Hanafin was responding to issues raised by the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin in an interview in The Irish Timesyesterday. In the interview, Dr Martin blamed poor planning by the Department of Education for the crisis in school places in north and west Dublin.
He said it was grossly unfair to blame the church's enrolment policies for the pressure on school places in Balbriggan, Diswellstown and other areas.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin
Asked about the apparent exclusion of foreign nationals, Dr Martin said: "Half of the junior infants in St Teresa's school [in Balbriggan] this year are children of immigrants. We did the same with Scoil Choilm in Diswellstown where we agreed to be patron for a new school almost exclusively made up of children with an international background."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme today, Ms Hanafin said there were up to 15,000 additional children in our schools this September over last September. The Department is planning for an extra 100,000 over the next few years, with much of that development taking place in the Fingal/north county Dublin area.
On the question of schools excluding children of certain backgrounds, Ms Hanafin said each school was entitled by law to defend its ethos.
"By law...the schools are entitled to have an enrollment policy which reflects their ethos. But it must be open and it must be transparent, it must be published and, indeed, parents have the right to appeal if they feel they are being discriminated against.
"What we are anxious to ensure is that every school around the country would welcome children in their own area. And in fairness, I would have to say that's what I witness around the country."
Ms Hanafin said she planned a new model of community school "where children of all religions, all backgrounds, all races are welcome without question".
Asked about the use of Baptismal certificates as a "gateway" for the entry of children to Catholic schools, Ms Hanafin said that was a matter for the schools. But she said it "certainly wasn't anticipated nor indeed is it welcome that you would have a school where every child in it is black".
Some 24 of the last 34 schools established had been multi-denominational or non-denominational, Ms Hanafin said.
Ms Hanafin said local authorities were obliged to ensure at the earliest stage of planning that schools should be built and that houses should not be allowed to be occupied until that happened.
However, she said that where huge numbers of families moved into an area, particularly during the summer, it wasn't always possible to anticipate the numbers when it came to the last few school places.
"Through the local area development plans, by law now the council must consult with the department of education. So in planning for bigger developments, we are now working with them to be able to identify how many sites are actually needed," Ms Hanafin said.
"Certainly in the past, far too many planning permissions were given, far too large estates were built and, undoubtedly, the people who have the leverage in this are the county councils. Because they are the people who could turn to a developer and say 'no we won't give you the planning permission for 200 houses unless you provide the site for the school'."
She said it could cost the State "millions" to acquire sites for new schools but that once that happened, they were built very quickly. The Department would press for more compulsory land purchase but this was a "slow process", she said.