Easy on there Richard. I thought my comment was so ridiculous people would hardly take it seriously.

No-one with sense took it seriously, D.A.

Interesting view, in Europe it doesn’t disappear it just goes to French and German banks. Where do you think the money is coming from?

I’m well aware of the banking slaveocracy, but the fact is that European projects are better and more well managed than national projects.

I think dependency is a terrible attribute the Irish have come accustom to. The government are making everything state owned look bad then they move to privatise the badly run body. The fact is until we sort out our education on a national level we will always be dependant on outside help.

What a foolish thing to say, Andrew. You obviously have no concept of how private education works.

Private education costs the taxpayer millions. It enhances the differential between social classes. This, in its turn, leads to the kind of inequality that ends up costing money., The idea that privatisation of education saves money is farcical

Andrew, in private education only the teachers’ salaries are paid, and they’d have to be paid for even if the children in question were in state-funded education. However, the taxpayer doesn’t pay for buildings, light, heating, capitation grants, etc etc. If all of the children currently being educated privately were to re-enter the state education system, it would end up stretching the current education budget much, much further. By that reckoning children in state-funded schools benefit directly from the fact that the parents of privately-educated children are undertaking the cost of their children’s education themselves.

And before you ask, no I don’t have children in private schools; my daughter has always attended state-funded schools and will continue to do so. I just don’t believe in demonising private education without knowing all the facts.

Yako, more illegal and repressive than denying large numbers of children their basic human rights by indoctrinating them through education into a religion not of their choice?

Any state school – funded by taxpayers – should be secular, free of any one orthodoxy. If parents wish to set up private religious schools they would of course continue to be free to do so. Otherwise you’re talking out of your hat.

But religious people are taxpayers too so also have a right to some form of say as to how their kids are educated. We are in changing times and moving from one idea to another it happens slowly

Andrew, you don’t have the right to educate your child at the expense of mine. The only way to be equally fair to all children is to move all religious education outside of school hours.

You have to respect all parts of society not just the parts you want. You are only swopping one orthodoxy for another. In fact the best way as always is a middle ground of tolerance not intolerance.

Exactly Andrew, we agree on that. The most tolerant, middle-ground attitude necessitates treating all children absolutely equally, respecting each child’s human rights to exactly the same degree, wouldn’t you agree?

The only way to achieve this is to remove all religious education from state-run schools. Parents would be free, then, to use school facilities after hours to provide the religious education of their choice, in conjunction with their local parish and local priest/rabbi/imam etc. Religious parents would no longer have to have this conversation, and non-religious parents would no longer have to painstakingly opt their children out of religious instruction, or else grit their teeth and bear it.

We’d all get along so much better.

“no longer have to painstakingly opt their children out of religious instruction, or else grit their teeth and bear it. ”

Serious? It couldn’t be easier. At the end of the day its about balancing demand and supply. There is no rational reason for a one -system- fits- all approach. Currently the Irish system is deeply flexibly according to local needs. You can even do your junior cert through French. Lets not force our personal agenda on everyone else.

Yako, you hit the nail on the head when you said a “one-system-fits-all approach”. That’s what we’re talking about. Why would you think that was a bad thing?

Genuine question for you: do you believe all Irish children are equal and have equal rights?

You know very well that all schools have the option of opting out of the religion programme.

No Yako, they don’t. The dept of ed religious curriculum must be taught in primary schools, unless, in the case of Educate Together schools, the patron body establishes their own curriculum covering all faiths. Either way, at primary level, the subject must be taught.

At secondary level there is currently no such option. Schools must teach the proscribed curriculum (which is at least 60% Christianity). The only changes they can make are to colour that curriculum with their own ethos, so that a catholic school can teach the curriculum from a catholic bias, and so on. In many schools around the country not only is it a compulsory subject, but a compulsory EXAM subject for Junior Cert. Religion is given more time in any week than science or other practical subjects.

Can you honestly say that you think that’s ok?