Critics of fee paying schools complain that they cherry-pick the brightest students and exclude those with learning difficulties, travellers and immigrants, in order to maintain their Leaving Cert rankings.

But Brian Flannery, the education delegate to Jesuit schools, defended the sector, saying that Jesuit schools were working to a target whereby 10 per cent of students would be linked to a social integration scheme. He said one Jesuit school, Belvedere, had already met this target. Students who are part of the programme are not liable for fees, he said.  

Meanwhile, €99m of taxpayers' money goes each year to pay the salaries of teachers at private schools. In addition, the Department of Education paid out another €2.1m for capital investments in 17 fee-paying schools in 2008.

Department sources say that Minister Batt O’Keeffe won’t abolish private school subvention, because more students would then go back into the state sector at extra cost to the taxpayer. But the minister is under pressure from the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) to make financial support contingent on more inclusive admission policies at private schools.

Now, in a surprise move, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, has suggested that some fee-paying schools want to go back into the free education system but that, due to funding issues, they are not being encouraged to do so.

Speaking informally at the Catholic Schools Week conference in Dublin on January 26, Dr. Martin said he had "heard of some fee-paying schools which would prefer now to go back into the normal system and, you know, there isn't great enthusiasm either from a financial point of view as to the State covering the fees that were paid by those schools".

Asked if he had heard directly from schools that they were considering opting out of private education, Dr Martin said: "I've heard it from people in the educational community."

Dr Martin said it was important to remember that there were non-fee paying Catholic schools of the "very highest quality which really shows that you can provide quality education . . . so it's possible to combine both".

Michael Moriarty of the Irish Vocational Education Committee, who was also at the conference, said the VEC sector would have no problem with fee-paying schools coming back into the State system.

"It is in my view a positive sign. It brings more equality and equity into the education system where we are all funded on the same basis," he said. "I would welcome that as long as it wouldn't have a resourcing implication for all the other schools presently in the free school system."

Labour's spokesman on education Ruairi Quinn, who also attended the conference, said it should be open to all fee-paying schools to opt out of private education if they felt they could not cope with the current system.

He said all fee-paying schools should have an open and transparent enrolment policy that did not turn away students with special needs.

He also called for a scholarship scheme in private schools for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Department of Education said it had no knowledge of any move by fee-paying schools to revert to the free second-level sector.

Ferdia Kelly, who represents school managers, said fee-paying schools had met recently to consider the Budget changes but there had been no discussion of any change to their status.

Brian Flannery also said he knew of no move by the three Jesuit schools - Clongowes, Belvedere and Gonzaga - to change their status.

It is understood that a small fee-paying school in Dublin made inquiries to the Department of Education in 2004 about change of status but later withdrew its application. (Sources: Sunday Times; Irish Times)