Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes called on the Catholic Church to hand over its school property and lands to the State. Mr Hayes argued that having the schools at such an arm's length from the State put unacceptable pressure on patrons to maintain schools.
'The State should simply lease out buildings to various educational providers, but ultimately be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of those schools,' he said. Calling for a new model of patronage, Mr Hayes said there should be a national survey of all parents to determine the preferred options for change, and a national forum on education to deal with the issues of ownership, control and patronage.
The issue of parental choice and school patronage had come into sharp focus since the publication of the Murphy and Ryan reports and, although extremely complicated, needed to be addressed by all those who had an interest in Irish education. He stressed that he respected the right of Catholic parents to send their children to Catholic schools. In the same way, he respected the right of parents to send their children to inter-denominational or non-denominational schools if that was their choice.