FF help Government put elitism at the heart of school admissions
Labour Party Education spokesperson, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, has criticised the cosy relationship between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael which has ensured the passing of the Admissions to School Bill.
Senator Ó Ríordáin said:
“While they duke out a phoney war through the media, Fianna Fáil have been cosying up to Fine Gael in the Seanad to make admissions to schools in Ireland completely elitist.
“Because of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael access to schools based on who your parents or your grandparents are is enshrined in legislation. This is wrong.
“Fianna Fáil call themselves the ‘Republican Party’, yet they’ve allowed the old, elite fee-paying sector lobby get to them. The sector feels strongly about keeping a royal bloodline of succession going through its schools to maintain the old school network of fundraising. It means that sons and grandsons of former students of certain fee-paying boys’ schools or daughters or granddaughters of certain fee-paying girls’ schools can still have a connection with the school and still fundraise and all the rest of it.
“It is not right that children who are trying to access a school on the same basis as everyone else should be disadvantaged because they are not a family member of a past pupil.
“So don’t believe the spin, the cosy relationship between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is alive and well, we’ve seen it through this odious plan to reserve 25% of school places for past pupils.”