The Government's failure to pay capital grants to new multi-denominational schools may be unconstitutional, the Professor of Education at UCC will tell an international conference on religion and education this week. Dr Aine Hyland will deliver a paper on the Irish experience of educating together children of different faiths to the International Standing Conference for the History of Education at Maynooth.
In it, she says that the failure since 1987 to pay capital grants to multi-denominational schools in their early years until they have proved their viability has placed a new burden on the promoters of such schools.
"This means that at a stage at which the schools are at their most vulnerable, and when the demand for accommodation is at its greatest, the cost of providing such accommodation falls entirely on the promoters. These conditions have not been imposed on Catholic or Protestant schools and may well be unconstitutional."
Prof Hyland, who was a founder of the Republic's first multi-denominational school, the Dalkey School Project, states: "The churches fought a hard battle in the 19th century to transform a system of education which was intended to be religiously mixed into a denominational one. They are determined to ensure that this system will remain intact into the 21st century.
"The funding structures of education, North and South, are such that it is difficult for non-corporate bodies, such as groups of parents, to set up their own schools, and so far the State itself is not willing to take the lead in providing integrated or multi-denominational education.
"This may appear strange to observers from outside Ireland who are aware of the considerable efforts being made in other areas of society to break down the barriers between Catholics and Protestants and to move forward the so-called `peace process'.
"While nobody maintains that integrated education is the solution to the Northern problem, it is not unreasonable to suggest that where parents clearly indicate a preference for such schools, and where there is a viable demand, this demand should be met.
In another paper, Dr Colm Lennon, of NUI Maynooth, describes the failure of ecumenical efforts in the late 16th century to anglicise Irish politics and Gaelic culture through education.
The four-day conference will be opened by the President, Mrs Robinson, today. It brings together 250 specialists in the history of education from 35 countries.
Other papers cover subjects such as religion, education and the family in 16th-century Germany; the Protestant Reformation through university education; the development of state religious education in Israel; education and Catholicism in 19th-century England; and religious faiths and public education in the USA.