The members of the Commission on Education of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference met Mr O'Keeffe to discuss the provision of religious education for Catholic children in the new model primary schools. The first two such schools opened in September 2008 under the auspices of the Co Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC).

The Bishops said they wanted to be able to assure Catholic parents of pupils in such schools that their children would follow the same religious education programme as in a Catholic school.

Following the meeting, Commission chair Bishop Leo O'Reilly said Minister O'Keeffe had given an assurance that the commitment to provide religious instruction on a denominational basis during the school day for pupils whose parents requested it still stood.

This model of religious instruction, to be implemented in community national schools, differs from the model in Educate Together schools, where denominational religious instruction takes place outside the regular school day.

At present, more than 3,000 of the 3,200 primary schools in the State operate under the patronage of the Catholic Church. Over the next decade, however, it is planned that hundreds of schools will open under the new community model as the primary school population grows by more than 100,000.

The bishops stressed that they wanted the new model of patronage in community national schools to succeed.

"We welcome the Minister's reaffirmation of the policy on religious education provision originally announced, and we look forward to it being implemented accordingly. Once again we welcome this additional model of patronage and wish it well," Bishop O'Reilly said. (Source: Irish Times)