Sir, – This notion that any group can simply open schools if it wishes to is often put forward; however, this is not how the system works. Our national school system is funded by the Department of Education and Skills and it decides where to open new schools based on the demographic need in an area. This need is based not on the type of school that is desired by parents in an area but on whether or not there are enough school places in the area for the number of children living there. When the department decides to open a school it then invites patron bodies to apply to run the school. In recent years Educate Together has opened more schools than any other patron body and this month we opened a further four.
The problem is not with the system of opening new schools, it is with the many areas in Ireland that already have enough schools but which are all run either by the Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland. As an example, in Castlebar there are 16 schools, all of them run by the Catholic Church. It is quite clear that a significant number of existing schools in towns across Ireland need to be reassigned to a new patron so as to provide a choice in the type of school that parents can send their children to. – Yours, etc,
DIARMAID
Mac AONGHUSA,
Chairman,
Educate Together,
Hogan Place,
Dublin 2.