Catholic Church giving over control of Primary Schools.

[descartes]

I was looking at V.Browne last night and I was annoyed and confused by the Churches spokesman on the show. He painted a picture that if the parents wished, the Church would gladly give over control!

Now the question I would like to ask is...........at this point ....Who actually owns the physical land/buildings of our schools?

It is my understanding that the Church in many cases only legally gave the foot print for the building to the State, and all the access land remained in the ownership of the Church. So effectively the Church legally owns the schools.

So are the Church actually handing over all control of the 2 or so schools that is being talked of?

[descartes]

I was looking at V.Browne last night and I was annoyed and confused by the Churches spokesman on the show. He painted a picture that if the parents wished, the Church would gladly give over control of our Primary Schools!

Now the question I would like to ask is...........at this point ....Who actually owns the physical land/buildings of our schools?

It is my understanding that the Church in many cases only legally gave the foot print for the building to the State, and all the access land remained in the ownership of the Church. So effectively the Church legally owns the schools.

So are the Church actually handing over all control of the 2 or so schools that is being talked of?

[andrew]

Didnt the child abuse compensation deal that Woods did with the church include handing over some schools to the state?

It seems that 3000 out of the 3200 primary schools are owned by the Church. Hopefully this will change. The spokesman for them did more damage than good.

[red365]

So are the Church actually handing over all control of the 2 or so schools that is being talked of?

No and nothing like it! The church owns the schools and there is no proposal that that will change. Even in the case of the two pilot schools, the ownership and control of the schools are remaining with the church. All they are doing is saying they will make provision for a certain proportion of non-catholics. That's all.

Closest thing we have to parent run schools are the Educate Together ones, but even that structure is shoe-horned into the bishop-as-patron model of management, where the national organisation Educate Together takes the place of the bishop.

[descartes]

So Andrew,
Are you saying that the State built schools on land that was not theirs?

That having built these schools and maintained them over the years they end up with no claim?

[Jemee Hope]

Does the Roman Catholic Church enjoy tax-free status in Eire?

[johnfás]

Does the Roman Catholic Church enjoy tax-free status in Eire?

Yes, all the Churches do. They have charitable status. Charities in Ireland are tax exempt currently.

A charity under Irish law is an organisation whose aims are exclusively charitable i.e. they come under one of the following definitions of charity:
The relief of poverty;
The advancement of education;
The advancement of religion;
Other purposes of a charitable nature beneficial to the community.

[johnfás]

So Andrew,
Are you saying that the State built schools on land that was not theirs?

That having built these schools and maintained them over the years they end up with no claim?

Generally the land is leased to the State and the schools are managed by the Church. The freehold of the land is retained by the Church.

[andrew]

So Andrew,
Are you saying that the State built schools on land that was not theirs?

That having built these schools and maintained them over the years they end up with no claim?

Generally the land is leased to the State and the schools are managed by the Church. The freehold of the land is retained by the Church.

Yep that sounds about right. NUI Maynooth is built on land leased from the Church. Its lead to some very interesting footpath alignments because they dont lease all of the land on the campus. Then there was the issue for years of no condom machines allowed....

[pauriceenjack]

The Church own most of the schools through the vechicles of Trusts.

The proposal of allowing 1/3 non catholics into catholic schools is a clever tactic that will secure catholic control to the end of this century and subject non catholics to a catholic ethos.

Further more it will ensure that the vast majority of teachers will be catholics.

By making the concession it will eliminate the demand for non catholic schools resulting in less choice and domination of education