THE DEPARTMENT of Education says it has no knowledge of any move by fee-paying schools to revert to the "free" second-level sector.
At a conference yesterday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, suggested that some fee-paying schools wanted to go back into the free education system but funding issues meant they were not being encouraged to do so.
He said he had "heard of some fee-paying schools which would prefer now to go back into the normal system and, you know, there isn't great enthusiasm either from a financial point of view as to the State covering the fees that were paid by those schools".
Asked if he had heard directly from schools that they were considering opting out of private education, Dr Martin said: "I've heard it from people in the educational community."
A Department of Education spokesman said it had not received applications from any school to join the free education scheme recently. It is understood one of the smaller fee-paying schools in Dublin made inquiries in 2004 but later withdrew its application.
Education figures said there was no move by the fee-paying sector to revert to full State control.
Ferdia Kelly, who represents school managers, said fee-paying schools had met recently to consider the Budget changes but there was no discussion of any change to their status.
Brian Flannery, the education delegate to Jesuit schools, said he also knew of no move by the three Jesuit schools - Clongowes, Belvedere and Gonzaga - to change their status.
Last week, it was revealed that State support to the 56 fee-paying schools totalled more than €100 million annually, most of it to fund teachers' salaries. Blackrock College in Dublin receives almost €4 million in annual support from the taxpayer, while four Loreto schools shared more than €6 million in State funding.
Both Dr Martin and Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe have been implicitly critical of some fee-paying schools, which have been accused of "cherry-picking" students and restricting admission to minority groups.
Mr Flannery last night defended the sector. He said Jesuit schools were working to a target where 10 per cent of students would be linked to a social integration scheme. He said one Jesuit school, Belvedere, had already met this target.
Students who are part of the programme are not liable for fees.
There are 56 fee-paying second-level schools in the State, of which 21 are Protestant, two interdenominational, one Jewish and the rest Catholic. Five per cent of Catholic schools are fee-paying.
While the salaries of teachers in fee-paying schools are paid by the State, the schools do not receive capitation grants or other supports, with the exception of Protestant and Jewish schools.
Protestant fee-paying schools receive the Protestant block grant to cover capitation, tuition and boarding grants. It will amount to €6.25 million in the current school year. A similar arrangement exists for the Jewish school, which amounted to €43,684 in the last school year.
However, minority religion schools lost out in the Budget when other non-pay grants were removed. They would have amounted to about €2.8 million this year.
Dr Martin said it was important to remember that there were non-fee paying Catholic schools of the "very highest quality which really shows that you can provide quality education . . . so it's possible to combine both".
He was speaking after he addressed a conference in Dublin which marked the beginning of Catholic Schools Week.
Michael Moriarty of the Irish Vocational Education Committee, who was at the conference, said the VEC sector would have no problem with fee-paying schools coming back into the State system.
"It is in my view a positive sign. It brings more equality and equity into the education system where we are all funded on the same basis," he said. "I would welcome that as long as it wouldn't have a resourcing implication for all the other schools presently in the free school system."
Labour's spokesman on education Ruairí Quinn, who was also at the conference, said it should be open to all fee-paying schools to opt out of private education if they felt they could not cope with the current system.
He said all fee-paying schools should have an open and transparent enrolment policy that did not turn away students with special needs.
He also called for a scholarship scheme in private schools for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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Celebrating Catholic schools at an All-Ireland level: page 14