Irish section

[hollyisalovelyname]

I see Northern Irish posters are looking for their own section on Mumsnet.
May we have an Irish section please ?There appear to be lots of Irish posters on this brilliant forum.

[PlanBwastaken]

Let's start it here to bump up the post count, hoping MNHQ takes notice...

So what's going on, has Bruton quietly just removed the limitations on past pupil status as admission criteria (initially capped at 20% I think), as there isn't a word on it in the press release or actual legislation as far as I can see?

And when do the changes take effect? I've one child starting in 2018 and one in 2020, and we're fucked if they abolish the waiting lists before then. The previously proposed legislation wasn't going to kick in until after my first is due to start, but I'm getting rattled now.

[MsHaveNaiceHam]

I haven't looked at it in a lot of detail.

TBH I view it quite favourably as I think some schools have quietly used the excuse of "waiting lists" as a barrier to accepting children with additional needs, or children from non-white Irish ethnic background.

As it stands the legislation has been sent to the Oireachtas See Here but looks not to be enacted until Sept 2017.

I don't know that it will change things quickly so might not affect your 2018 admission; a lot of it will continue to be down to the individual schools' Board of Mgmt I imagine.

[libertydoddle]

Popping in to vote for The Hot Press.

[Dairybanrion]

Planbwastaken,
What do you need to discuss?

[PlanBwastaken]

Thanks MsHave, I had only seen the initial press release - I think it's unlikely to apply before 2018 then, especially as the list system was going to be phased out under the initial proposal.

Well, the hypocrisy in labelling this as an end to discrimination while still letting the main criteria for admission be religion in most schools really gets to me... I agree lists aren't exactly ideal either, but as someone wanting to get their unbaptized children into a school in Dublin I'll take what I can get.

I think there's some pressure for change, but seeing how little this round of legislation will do is disappointing. An Irish solution to an Irish problem springs to mind...

[MsHaveNaiceHam]

PlanB I am not in Dublin, but what I know of the system there is bonkers.

It seems to me to be quite class orientated; I was surprised when I first worked in Dublin, how one of the initial questions asked of you was where you had gone to school...

The main religion criteria are historical..legally many schools continue to be owned or "under the patronage" of the local bishop.
Not ideal....my children' school has children from about 15 countries with several religious backgrounds. Still "Catholic" ethos.
Fortunately, the management have a relatively inclusive attitude though I doubt that is particularly satisfactory if you're not from the dominant, white, Irish, Catholic indigenous population.
We've a long way to go to do multiculturalism in this country...and we have a poor record of fair treatment of our "historical minorities".

I suspect that we may be setting up discontent in our children, which will only be expressed when they are older and able to tell us how marginalised they felt in 2016.

[MsHaveNaiceHam]

God, that was a bit of an essay....I can only imagine how frustrated you must feel if you are worrying about your non-Catholic child.

An Irish solution

[vvviola]

The problem is, there's enough people who are happy with the situation the way it is, that there was going to be uproar whatever happened. Small steps is often the only way to get things done - especially in relation to education.

In our area there has been a lot of complaints that new schools didn't give priority to "children of the parish", even though there were already 3 schools that did!

[PlanBwastaken]

I know some schools around here are applying a catchment area, but the problem is that not all of them do, and the baptism requirement still trumps that for non-Educate Together schools anyway.

I do agree small steps is the way, but I kind of thought we'd be in a position in 2016 where less than 97% of primaries have a single religion ethos and are allowed to pick pupils based on that.

I wonder if the amount of internal migration we've had since the recession, with Irish people (with a vote) moving into Dublin for example, might be driving the changes at the moment - while the non-religious still aren't making enough fuss to be listened to (we're busy putting our babies down on waiting lists...)?

[SnipSnipMrBurgess]

I always find the religious enrollment panic a bit strange tbh. Its never been asked once to me about my son since the say he started school.

He attends a catholic gaelscoil in Cork. at least a third of the pupils in the school are not baptised and it was not an issue at communion time, they were found something else to do when the kids practiced in the church on the run up and were invited to the party after.

The local national school is similar and my sisters have never had the issue.

My sister in Dublin however is another story, they want all their kids baptised before enrollment and my sister is not religious so unless she sends her dc to an educate together school, I dont know what she will do

[MsHaveNaiceHam]

Ditto MrBurgess here... communion time actually gave me a little bit of a heartstab (in a good way). DC's Catholic school did the communion prep and non-Catholics were taught at the same time by a different teacher. Non-C's asked to the after party and for the class photo.
Nobody felt excluded or odd for taking part.

Dublin does seem to have rules of it's own re schools though.

[LuckyLuckyMe]

Our local national school did ask for baptismal certs (v old school and probably very old form) but didn't actively look for them.

Most of DD1's class made their communion but quite a few less made it in DD2's class.

We are not in a catchment area for any secondary school though so that's going to be fun next year.

[DramaAlpaca]

We had to produce baptismal certs for our DC on enrolment, if I remember correctly, and again in communion year.

My DC went to a very traditional national school in a fairly rural area, the only mixed primary school for miles around.

There were only a handful of children who didn't make their communion and they weren't included in anything at all. I felt quite sorry for them.

If there'd been an educate together school anywhere nearby I'd have wanted to send my DC there.

[CmereTilliTellYa]

All the national schools round here (I'm in Dublin) have a catholic ethos although children of all/no religions welcome in the one my kids are in. It's very large though and in an aging area, although this is changing slowly, so it takes kids from quite a wide area as its so big. In theory priority goes to children 'of the parish' though and they do have the parish boundary on their website for reference. Baptised children of the parish first and then non-baptised children living in the parish area. I'd like to see the parish and baptismal bit done away with and priority just given to children living within a clearly set out boundary line. I think that's the situation in the UK for the most part? I know that comes with its own problems, but it's fairer than what we have now.

[MaisieDotes]

Fucksake, I dropped off the thread.

I don't really know what I'm going to do about national school for my two younger ones. They will be going in 2019 and 2020.

DD went to a great school but she's now halfway through secondary and the sibling rule doesn't apply unless the child is still in the school which is fair enough. Also DD was christened as I hadn't really thought about things properly back then (she's 15) and just went down the route of least resistance. But I couldn't christen the boys now, I'm too ambivalent towards the church.

I'm think I'm just going to apply to every school in the general area and hope for the best.

[KatherineMumsnet]

Cheers, all - we are discussing here at MNHQ, we've not forgotten!

[WhisperingLoudly]

We were practically laughed out of town trying to secure places in May for a Sept start for our atheist, non-Irish DC

[WhisperingLoudly]

Are there any sites where you can get info/comparisons on which bank accounts to open, who to use for broadband, best mobile provider etc?

I'm so used to there being a dearth of info available on everything and suddenly it seems I need to research, compare and contrast all on my own

[middlings]

switcher.ie/broadband/

Try this Whispering. It's the equivalent of USwitch in the UK.

Did you find a school?

[CmereTilliTellYa]

I think there are a few comparison sites out there. For mobiles Vodafone was recently found to have the best coverage but I'm with 3 as at the time they had an all you can eat data offer. Coverage can be patchy though.

There is definitely a comparison site for healthy insurance which you will need as the public system has long waiting lists. You will miss the NHS!

Bank account wise the main ones are bank of Ireland, allied Irish bank (AIB), KBC, permanent TSB and Ulster Bank. The first two seem to have the most branches.

TV wise many seem to go for a package that will include broadband, home phone and TV. Virgin and Sky are the main providers here but you can get just basic tv or one of those free view boxes and source broadband elsewhere.

[hollyisalovelyname]

Thanks Katherine Mumsnet

[hollyisalovelyname]

Bonkers.ie is a comparison website for energy providers.
Public health system is not good as there are such long waiting lists.
Many people have private health insurance- VHI, Laya etc.
Unless you have a medical card you will have to pay for gp appointment at up to €65 a pop under 6's are free.
Medicine is paid for too- unless you have a medical card.
Many medicines you can buy in UK or Spain otc are only on prescription here that's because of the strong lobbying by the pharmacists.
Sometimes I wonder why we pay tax as we have to pay for so much ourselves....oh yes I forgot, we had to pay back the bond holders. Doh!

[CaitAgusMadra]

Errr one small correction Holly, pharmacist associations and unions in Ireland usually campaign to have medicines made otc (in most cases it's more profitable to sell itv than on prescription). The main reason is actually the conservative policy of the HPRA (former IMB) (rightfully so in some cases)

[CaitAgusMadra]

To sell otc not itv