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LAST UPDATE | 29 Apr
AS BOTH A public representative and a parent, I have long believed that education should reflect the diversity of the society it serves. Yet in Ireland today, too many parents are forced into impossible choices simply to access a school that aligns with their values.
I speak not only from policy experience but personal reality: all four of my children have had to attend schools outside our own community in Dublin 8, because, at the time, none of the local secondary schools offered a secular or multi-denominational ethos.
Dublin 8 is a vibrant and proudly diverse area, yet its educational landscape still mirrors a model from a different era. Despite meaningful social change across Ireland over recent decades, approximately 88% of our primary schools remain under the patronage of the Catholic Church. Only around 6% are officially classified as multi-denominational. In a republic that has embraced equality in so many spheres, this glaring imbalance in school patronage persists.
Recent data confirms that the demand for change is not just anecdotal – it is widespread and growing. A survey from Education and Training Boards Ireland found that 61% of adults would prefer a multi-denominational education for their children, compared to just 9% who support religious-run schools. The trend is especially visible at the post-primary level, where, for the first time, the number of students attending multi-denominational schools has overtaken those enrolled in Catholic institutions. This is not an ideological debate, it is a practical, demographic and democratic one.
Despite these clear signals from the public, the pace of reform has been unacceptably slow. The Department of Education has stated its ambition to increase the number of multi-denominational schools to 400 by 2030. At present, however, we are nowhere near meeting that target.
The pilot programme intended to facilitate the transfer of school patronage in cities like Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick has yielded only modest results, with very few successful transitions. The complexity of the divestment process and the lack of transparent, community-led consultation are major barriers to progress.
Lack of transparency to stakeholders has been problematic. The Department has promised a survey of parents to get a better idea of preferred patronage, which has no clear start date. Educate Together and other groups have been eager to see this survey begin, but there has been nothing but silence from the Department.
Meanwhile, parents are left with few choices. I have met families who felt compelled to baptise their children solely to improve their chances of securing a school place nearby. Others sit silently through religious instruction they do not subscribe to, hoping not to be made to feel different. In a modern democracy, that is not acceptable. Children should not be required to conform to a particular religious identity in order to access public education. Nor should teachers be required to deliver religious content in a professional context where it conflicts with their own beliefs.
This issue is not about eliminating religion from public life – it is about ensuring that education in publicly funded schools is inclusive, respectful and secular by default. For those families who value religious education, there will always be space for it in appropriate contexts. But State-funded education must reflect the values of all citizens, not a particular tradition.
In my own constituency, I have worked with the Educate D8 campaign, an initiative led by a remarkable group of parents and advocates who have been calling for a multi-denominational school in Dublin 8. Their vision is simple: a school that reflects the pluralism of our community, where no child is left on the margins because of their faith or lack thereof. Despite strong community backing and years of engagement with stakeholders, that campaign has yet to result in a new school. The will is there. What’s lacking is sufficient action at the policy level.
We are at a critical juncture. Teachers themselves are also calling for reform. At the recent Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) conference, a strong majority of teachers expressed support for removing religious symbols from public school spaces and for making religious education optional and conducted outside core hours. This is not a fringe position; it is an emerging consensus among professionals who spend every day in the classroom.
If we are serious about delivering an education system that serves all children equally, then the government must act with far greater urgency. That means speeding up the divestment process, ensuring genuine community input in school patronage decisions, and actively investing in the growth of inclusive, multi-denominational school models.
The question is no longer whether Irish society is ready for secular, pluralistic education. It is whether the State is willing to respond to that readiness. Education is about more than academic instruction; it is about values, identity and the kind of society we hope to build for the next generation.
No parent should have to send their child across the city just to find a school that respects their family’s beliefs. No child should be made to feel othered in a classroom funded by the State. And no teacher should be asked to teach within a framework that does not reflect the diversity of the children they serve.
Ireland is changing. Our education system must change with it.
Jen Cummins is a TD for Dublin South Central and is the party’s spokesperson on education.
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They can rob mine all they want. It went from a healthy six figure sum in 2008 to the grand figure of €26,000. That new figure is bang up to date as the statement arrived today.
I very much doubt I’m the only one.
Bet M. Noonan’s went up over the same time frame
Did you diversify when shit hit the fan?
Yes there is, the government will steal some private pension money to prop up public pensions
Also. Many PS retire before 65 on gold plated pensions and continue working in either PS or private sector. Not just politicians going to Europe but CEOs of state boards, Gardaí, teachers, nurses.
We should apply a Retired Public Service Pension Levy to cap pensions at 60k and significantly reduce them is the retiree is still working- at least until they reach retirement age
You need to either change your anti-public servant record or do your homework. To retire on a pension of 60K, a public servant would have to have 40 years service and an finishing salary of 120 grand. Less than 2% of the public sector are on that final salary and not all of even that tiny percentage would have 40 years service.
Were, I”ll be on about €50k after 25 years in the PS and I was told by Cornmarket that my pension will be €12500 a year when I retire after 40 years!
Not fun is it. Most PS don’t have pensions of that size but many do and continue to work.
‘Many do’
So, less than 2% is ‘many’ now, is it?
You really need to get that chip off your shoulder.
The 60k plus pensions may be 2%. But the pension plus pvte sector work is a lot more
Would it be more than a private sector pension of 60K plus private sector work?
There’s almost no pvte sector pensions of 60k. Would need a fund of €2 million to support such a pension
Croke Park, are you even reading the comments being put to you? There is almost no public sector pensions of 60k either!!
Dear god. I’m talking about the PS workers who retire at 50+, on a pension of 40k+, who take up employment in the pvte sector at 40k+
In some cases both payments are much higher. I personally know more than 10 “pensioners” in this category
My Dad is a retired public servant I can assure you it not a whopping gold plated pension so stop peddling lies.
This government has stolen private savings. This discourages anyone from saving into a pension fund. This leaves the problem to our children to fund from their taxes. Assuming that us that there is anything left after paying off the national debt which we have so generously left them.
Isn’t that what all tax is.
This is happening at the moment.
We need to stop thinking of wealth in terms of money. Money itself is as close to worthless as makes no difference, and saved money worth even less again, because what we call money may be currency, but in economic terms it’s actually not quite money. Money is anything which satisfies three criteria: a means of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. From this definition, we can see that our currency is not money in economic terms, as due to inflation money does not represent a good store of value. This may seem like nit picking, but it is a very important point.
As currency does not represent a store of value, to look to pension funds to provide us with wealth for aging populations is a quite ludicrous notion. Gone are the days of the gold standard and similar such systems, so the future value of currency is based primarily on the economic strength of the issuing jurisdiction at any given time. Putting EUR 100 into a pension fund today, compounded at 2% per annum over 35 years means that when you cash out that initial EUR 100 you will have just shy of EUR 200. This may seem like a good investment, but what will EUR 200 be worth in 35 years? What will it be worth in 35 days for that matter?
To provide for the elderly, the country requires wealth. Currency may be a useful measure of this wealth, but in reality wealth is the ability of an economy or society to produce and provide necessary goods and services. The western world (and indeed much of the rest of the world) is currently witnessing extremely high unemployment rates, yet the global economy still appears quite capable of providing us with what we need. Technological advances will only see demand being met with an ever decreasing necessity for labour input.
There is no looming pension crisis. The crisis we face is a systemic crisis, and is easily resolved by adapting our monetary and governance systems to suit the conditions of the modern world, and stop trying to adapt the modern world to suit archaic systems.
Your example of 2pct compounded over years bringing 100Eur to 200Eur, but purchasing power of that having eroded is quite correct.
However, generally people will not put money on deposit over such a large span of time. And deposit interest rates often do not keep pace with inflation.
That is why pensions over the long term are invested in funds based on commodities, equities and property. These on average will at least match or beat inflation in the long run. Pension funds only move to deposits close to retirement as they are safer (can only go down in financial/bank crash), albeit with an annual return that might not keep pace with inflation.
As for an economy (or monetary zone) with high inflation (and therefore rapidly devaluing currency with reduced purchasing power per unit of currency), this is likely to coincide with rapidly increasing value of assets and investments underpinning pension funds, at least local ones.
Therefore while pension funds are not safe, there are inherent safeguards that mitigate against them becoming worthless , but only on average and over the long term.
It does not prevent problems occurring due to fund mismanagement or economic crashes.
I know, the rate it was just a simple example to illustrate a point, and I chose 2% as this is generally the target inflation rate. The point I was making isn’t that pension funds are worthless to individuals, as under our current system they certainly make sense for individuals, but to the detriment of society as a whole unfortunately. Few people, journal readers in particular it seems, appear to make the link between the derided bond holders or high property prices & their own retirement nest egg.
The point about the weakness of currency still stands. Our retirees could well end up controlling the S&P 500 and the entirety of Australia’s mineral deposits, but if society does not have the ability to provide adequate care and sufficient food, they will starve like the rest of us. The true wealth of a nation is not it’s stock market or pension funds (thank Christ as we had the worst pension funds in Europe until Poland pulled this little trick), but on our ability to produce and provide. Pension funds are storing away today’s wealth to provide for tomorrow, but today’s wealth may well be worthless tomorrow, while today people starve because all the wealth is being put away for a rainy day.
Since time immemorial, the economics of scarcity was all that mattered, as scarcity was all we had and all we knew. But what do we do when we have enough of everything for everyone? Do we hamper production to ensure scarcity to safeguard the system, or do we adapt to the economics of abundance, and how do we make the transition?
I dont care too much for money ,money cant buy me love.
Silent,,sounds like you understand the monetary system…central banks/fiat currency/fractionalised reserve banking etc etc..note the current move by the BICS to asset based currency..the Chineese rmb.bartering..the assault by US FED on bitcoin etc etc..the world is changing..best advice to all is ‘isolate yourself from the state as far as you are able’… “interesting times” ahead i think
I don’t agree Mike, we do not need to isolate from the state, we are the state. That’s a lot of the point I’m, unsuccessfully I fear, trying to make. Corporations and so called elites may control the power, political types may control the laws, but we are the society, we are the labour, we are the innovators, we are everything. Isolation achieves nothing, participation can change everything.
Things changing may mean interesting times ahead, but doesn’t necessarily mean bad times. I don’t believe this is all some big evil conspiracy, just that the world around us is developing faster than we really know what to do with, and we need to learn to adapt to these changes as a society and not just as individuals. If we look at education for example, the leaving cert is still primarily focused on learning off information on a variety of topics; is this really necessary in a world where no child will remember not being able to access an absolute encyclopedia of knowledge via a device in their pocket? Similarly, the monetary system is also something that has been overtaken by time really; it doesn’t seem to working very well for many societies globally at the moment. But it is just a system, made by man to serve man, and we always have the power to change it when the conditions around us demand it.
Just because things don’t work the way that perhaps they should doesn’t mean sinister forces are corrupting proceedings, any system controlled by and involving humans will always be imperfect because humans are delightfully imperfect.
Hi,silent, your comments are laudible but idealistic and depend on,the people, understanding and then seeking a change..a big ask..i use the state as a term which i see as the govt/mandarins which might not have an agenda that is not in the interests of the many but selected for the few..so i say..during times of uncertainty protect yourself whilst sharing your knoweldge with others so they may form their own view and pos petition for change. what i see is secrecy at all levels and propeganda etc..alternate views to the official one is characterised as ‘conspiracy theories’ eg mad cap/deluded etc..all revolves around the monetary system which is ‘not fit for purpose’ but is exploited by the few who ‘know’…pardon grammar/spelling
Mike, just read over my last comment and I meant to say “Corporations and so called elites may control the power” when I meant to say they control the money – isn’t that telling that in spite of all the views I’ve just expressed I still confuse money and power! And there’s more than the few who know, many know and play the system to their advantage, from the person who under declares income to get their kid a college grant, to the one who gets inside info on a pharma patent to make the GDP of a small nation. It’s game theory, we all take our own optimal position. Whatever vested interests exist, they’ve either not tried, or failed in their attempts, to hinder the development of the past century which has witnessed more innovation, and a greater rise in living standards, than the entirety of human history had achieved previously. We are not living in scary times, just confusing times. If we just embrace our achievements and potential, there really is no limit to what we can achieve.
The guberment has no money, you have money, the guberment needs money. Guess how it ends.
They all live happily ever after?
I’m thinking of going to Newry and open a bank account transfer all my saving which is pittance into that account and direct debit my monthly savings into this account anyone know if this is legal or not ?
Of course it’s legal, it’s your money. But it will be a GBP account you open so you will be exposing yourself to currency risk, to hedge which will be costly. Risk can obviously work out in your favour or against you, but over a long enough period you will almost certainly witness dips in value.
Believe you have to declare it for DIRT & tax purposes. If you are planning to do direct debit make sure it is all tax legal or the friendly revenue service will knock on your door.
Pension can’t be moved. Property can’t be moved. We are owned by the government.
The PS pension train wreck is coming. Any chance the govt could calculate an actuarial value on each PS pension as if they were to retire today and park that notional sum at interest equal to inflation. Switch them all to a DC scheme with govt matching 5%?
You need to work 40 years to get a PS salary and mine will be €12,500 a year. Give over!
That’s the new career earnings based pension Tommy. Another example of Howlin pulling the ladder up after him. You lads now pay a public service pension levy ostensibly to pay for your own pension but in reality it’s to keep the current crop of PS pensioners in the style they’ve become accustomed to. You lads will NEVER claim back what you’re paying in now. If PS pple march on the Dáil in protest about this daylight robbery, I’ll march beside ye. It’s a total joke what they’ve done. Not only burdening our kids with crazy national debt but also burdening young PS workers with a levy they’ll never collect and raiding what any reasonable person would deem sacrosanct private pensions. We’re entering Robert Mugabe territory.
Get your pension and go to paddy powers and put it on The Dubs to win the All Ireland for the next 10 years
Why would anyone wish to continue putting their hard earned (and already super taxed) earnings into a pension pot for the Gov to rob??? Off to open a UK account….
Money paid by a PAYE worker into a pension fund is given relief at the marginal rate. Effectively, you put the money in tax free. They get the tax when you eventually retire and start to drawdown your pension.
They get tax each and every year you save your money!
No strictly true David, a pensioner can earn 18k before they have to pay tax, 36k for a retired couple. Pretty generous really. There is USC but reduced rates apply.
No. Because none of the heirachy benefit, so it wont ever be thought of
Why not nationalise private pensions and give guaranteed 4% return. Funds could be used for stimulus. It would be better than the system we have now. It just seems to be luck if you happen to retire with a high value pot. it’s cyclic. Although Could we trust the government not raid it when things go tits up again. Hmmm
Private pension funds are just that, Private. The government have no right to take it for any reason. If they want to set up a scheme that people can pay into instead and guarantee 4% thats fine
Isn’t that pretty much what Madoff did? Want to hire him as minister for finance?
Defined Contribution Schemes that will fund only a fraction of a DB scheme should not have to pay the pension levy.
Isn’t the nice lady from ifg pensions engaged in scare mongering and pr. You should really offer a bit more explanation about how such a person gets to write the article in the first place.
Well done Timmay Timeo. I hadn’t spotted that one!
Just death
The pension industry charge extortionate fees and often give very poor performances. They rely on the fact that countless years will pass before the pay date.
Are pension funds a waste of money? So much is lost in fees and commissions. I think I might be better off running the fund myself. Diverse blue chips from around the world etc.
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