Legislation to remove ‘baptism barrier’ has been passed by the Dáil

Legislation to remove the 'baptism barrier' has been passed by the Dáil.

The law which would remove the necessity to be baptised to gain entry into a Catholic school was accepted last night. The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill dictates that the barrier would be removed from most schools, but kept in cases where a child of a minority needs to gain access to a school of their religious ethos. Minister for Education Richard Bruton said:

 “Ireland is changing and we need to change with it. "The expectation of citizens around the education system have changed and I think this Bill will go some distance to ensuring that we keep up with those changes."

Earlier this month, Bruton outlined that ninety per cent of Ireland's primary schools are Catholic, but up to 20 per cent of parents have no religion. The minister had previously said that he believed it was unfair for parents to feel they had to baptise their child to get them a school place. He also said that it was unfair that Catholic children who lived far away from certain schools could be given priority over children who lived nearby but were of another faith or had no religion. This week, parents of pre-school children were being surveyed by the Department of Education about what religious ethos they want schools in their area to have. Speaking with Pat Kenny on Newstalk on Monday, Minister Richard Bruton said that broadly-speaking the Catholic Church was eager to remove itself from day-to-day educational operations. He explained that the surveys will initially be given to parents with kids in pre-school - as those are the pupils who will shortly enter primary schools. The government's move is likely to be opposed by Catholic groups including the Iona Institute and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), who had already objected to the proposals before this. Last year, the CPSMA claimed that Catholic schools refused just 1.2 percent of enrolments in greater Dublin to non-Catholic children.