The call by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, for a plurality of patronage and providers of education has drawn a warm response.
The multi-denominational group Educate Together said it looked forward to working with the archbishop, the Department of Education and other partners to ensure there is a balanced choice of school types available for all families in Ireland.
The group representing vocational schools said his comments reflected the reality of a rapidly evolving, multicultural, multi-ethnic society in Ireland.
Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association , said the challenge now facing the State is to "develop a community-based primary school which reflects the diversity of the community it serves".
In a separate development last night, the INTO said a report prepared by school principals for Fingal County Council and the Department of Education four years ago had pointed to the urgent need for additional school accommodation in the area. "This clearly shows that the department and the county council was aware that school accommodation problems were coming down the line," said John Carr, general secretary of the INTO.
He said: "One totally unfair consequence of the failure to plan for school places in Balbriggan and in other places is the impression that some primary schools or the teachers who work in them do not treat all children equally or fairly. Nothing could be further from the truth as the multi-ethnic and multi-faith composition of all the schools in the area clearly shows," he said.
Last night, Paul Rowe, of Educate Together, said: "Catholic schools and their enrolment policies are not the cause of school place shortages. Neither are they the cause of religious discrimination in the system.
"Faith-based schools may lawfully prefer those of their religion when taking enrolments. What is unacceptable is that in most areas of the country there is no alternative. This lack of choice is the State's responsibility."
There is an urgent need, he said, for the Minister and her department to work with organisations such as Educate Together to ensure that in all areas parents have access to a multidenominational school, that there are sufficient school places for all children and that parents may make a free choice between faith-based schools and those based on the Educate Together model.
Mr Moriarty said VECs have successfully managed multidenominational second-level schools for many decades.
The department's plan to establish the first State-run primary schools under the patronage of Co Dublin VEC at Diswellstown is a timely and welcome development, he said.
Mr Moriarty concluded: "while respecting the different ethos of different denominational schools (and VECs manage 39 community colleges) there is now an enhanced urgency to cater for a significantly altered social mix through the establishment of faith-inclusive, multidenominational, community-based primary schools.
"Future generations will measure our success as a nation on the capacity of our education system to integrate students from different cultures and different ethnic backgrounds in a school learning environment."
