The Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has blamed poor planning for a lack of schools places in parts of and

 west Dublin and has vigorously defended the record of Irish catholic schools and their teachers.

 

Commentators had pointed to the enrolment system as being to blame for the fact that many children, largely children of immigrants were unable to secure a place in national schools “I would be very happy to see a plurality of patronage and providers of education. ” he said. He said he would continue to provide catholic schools for those parents who wished to send their children.

Archbishop Martin said it was grossly unfair to blame the church’s enrolment policies for the pressure on school places in Balbriggan, Diswellstown and other areas.

“In Balbriggan the Catholic schools expanded to absolute capacity this year to try and alleviate the situation. The problem in the area was pointed out to the authorities by all the schools as far back as 2003, which was ample time to address the question.”

Asked about the apparent exclusion of foreign nationals, Archbishop Martin said: “Half of the junior infants in St Teresa’s catholic school this year are children of immigrants. We did the same with Scoil Choilm in Diswellstown where we agreed to be patron for a new school almost exclusively made up of children with an international background.” He praised those teachers in catholic schools who had embraced multiculturalism and its challenges in classrooms throughout around the diocese for many years.

The core issue was the pressure on school places.”The Catholic education system has been far-seeing and has provided Catholic schools for Catholic parents. We have done our job, if there are others who are left without schools they should not blame us.” Asked about the controversial decision of some schools to exclude children without a baptismal certificate, he said it would have been “dishonest to have an enrolment policy that did not reflect the fact that our schools provide a Catholic education”

Archbishop Martin said some people appeared to believe that all the problems of the education system would be solved if the Catholic Church was relieved of its management role. This underestimated the huge public demand for Catholic education; over 50 per cent of the population say it is their preferred model, he said.

Over 3,000 of the State’s 3,280 primary schools are controlled by the Catholic Church. Archbishop Martin said he had no interest in dominating the provision of education in DublinDublin and he would welcome debate about the future management model.The archbishop said he could envisage “divesting current Catholic schools” if into the future there was no demand for Catholic education.”Take an area where there are five schools . . . over a period of time, and in consultation with parents and teachers, you could rationalise that and ensure you have sufficient number of schools for Catholics and other patrons.”