The Holy Ghost Fathers have decided to hand over management of some of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the State to a private company.
The five schools run by the order - Blackrock College, Templeogue College, St Mary's College Rathmines, St Michael's College, Ballsbridge and Rockwell College in Co Tipperary - will all be affected by the restructuring.
The Holy Ghost fathers are withdrawing from the management of the schools because they no longer have sufficient numbers to run them. Many younger members of the order are choosing missionary work instead of taking posts in the schools.
The board of the company will consist of former pupils, their relatives, some church figures and figures from the legal and business worlds.
The new company has yet to hold a board meeting and the order yesterday said it did not want to comment on how it would operate until this meeting has been held.
All the order would say was the company would be responsible for "policy matters" in the future. It said further details would be released this month.
As well as setting up the company, the order is considering appointing lay boards of management in the schools.
The order's decision comes at a time when the Catholic Church and religious congregations are intensively examining alternative models of school management.
While 360 of the State's 780 second-level schools are Catholic voluntary secondary schools, declining vocations mean religious congregations are moving towards looser management structures which involve teachers, parents and the local community.
In the last 30 years, the number of people from religious orders teaching in second-level education has fallen from 2,300 to just over 600. Fewer than 5 per cent of the religious still involved in second-level schools are under the age of 35.
The Conference of Religious in Ireland has been looking at future school ownership models on the premise that within 10 years all Catholic schools will be owned by trusts on which lay people are heavily represented.
Blackrock College has also decided to "gradually phase out" its 139-year-old boarding school. No applications for boarding for boys from first to fourth year will be taken from next year. The possibility of continuing fifth and sixth-year boarding will be reviewed in 2003.
In a letter to parents last week the president of the college, Father Sean Casey, said there were "insufficient Holy Ghost Fathers personnel to manage and supervise boarders . . . despite the generosity of lay staff in recent years. The costs of running a boarding facility continue to escalate and fees would need to rise sharply to meet rising costs."
Father Casey said the shortage of clergy to work in the schools was partly attributable to many Holy Ghost Fathers opting to work in the developing world.
"They want to go out and do missionary work which has always been at the centre of what the Holy Ghost Fathers do," he said.
Father Casey said a major redevelopment of Blackrock was also planned and several old buildings would have to be replaced. He said fundraising would have to take place to meet the costs.