Exclusive fee-paying schools should be obliged by the State to admit a quota of disadvantaged students each year, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has said.
Mr Dempsey said he "intuitively" supported the idea of allowing people from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter private fee-paying schools. "It is certainly something that has to be looked at," the Minister said.
Mr Dempsey said the State paid teachers' salaries in fee-paying schools and consequently could demand certain things from such schools.
Speaking on RTÉ's Tonight with Vincent Browne programme, Mr Dempsey said: "You could say to each of the fee-paying schools, if you want us to pay teachers' salaries and so on, here is a quota of people from disadvantaged areas that we want you to take in and educate."
Mr Dempsey said in the current economic environment, the Department had to look at how its money was being spent. A Department spokeswoman said last night Mr Dempsey was looking at ideas in this area, but there was no firm policy at this stage.
The body which represents most of the fee-paying schools, the Joint Managerial Body, said it regarded the idea as "impractical". Its general secretary, Mr George O'Callaghan, said he did not accept that children who did not attend fee-paying schools were in any way disadvantaged.
"This idea would do virtually nothing to tackle inequalities in the system. If schools were forced to take in a quota of extra students, it could also affect the current fee structure of those schools," he said.
Mr Dempsey's idea, if implemented, would be one of the most radical plans to emerge in Irish education in recent years. However, the opposition from parents and schools could be considerable.
Mr Dempsey said he did not favour stopping payment to teachers in fee-paying schools. He said if payment was stopped, many of the schools would move into the free education scheme and the Department would have to fund them anyway.
"If you remove that [payment to teachers in fee-paying schools\], pupils will end up in the public sector anyway," he said.
He said a sudden shift of so many schools into the free education scheme would put the Department's school-building programme "up the creek".
Last night Ms Barbara Johnston of the Congress of Catholic Secondary School Parents' Associations said some fee-paying schools were making serious efforts to admit more disadvantaged pupils.
"All schools should have a good social mix in their classes," she said.
The number of fee-paying schools nationally is small, though there is a large number in Dublin, particularly on the south side.