Fine Gael's education spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, has said the decision of the parish priest in Trim, Co Meath, to reduce his parish's contribution to primary education had "brought a simmering issue to the surface".
"It is time that the State shouldered its constitutional obligation for the full cost of primary education. Under the Constitution, the State is obliged to `provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiatives'. Yet for years the Irish model has been to have the church act as a `private patron', thereby relieving the State of providing the full cost of free education."