Northern Irish leader against Catholic schools

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson, on Friday called on the ending of state-support for religious schools in the province. Almost all religious schools in Northern Ireland are Catholic, and are state-supported, like other religious schools in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Robinson, who comes from the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party, called religious schools a "benign form of apartheid".

Catholic leaders in Northern Ireland have always defended their right to provide a Catholic education to children.

“Denominational schools exist for the rights of parents to choose a Catholic education and choose a faith based education for their children,” says Michael Kelly, the deputy editor of The Irish Catholic.

Kelly said the First Minister is also affected by financial concerns.

“The Northern Ireland Executive is facing a very serious funding shortfall,” he said. “I think this is seen as a way of saving some money by trying to remove the funding that is currently provided for Catholic schooling.”
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