City of Dublin ETB is delighted to announce that St. Enda’s National School Whitefriar Street, Dublin 8, will be transferring from Catholic patronage to the patronage of City of Dublin ETB as a Community National School (CNS). CNSs are state-run, co-educational, multi-denominational primary schools, underpinned by the core values of excellence in education, respect, care, equality and community. This follows an announcement today by Minister for Education Norma Foley TD.

Speaking earlier today, Dr. Christy Duffy, Chief Executive City of Dublin ETB, said: “This is a really important moment for parents and children in the local Dublin 8 community. In becoming a community national school (CNS) they now have the option of going to a co-educational, multi-denominational, state-run primary school. As the state education and training authority for Dublin city we are delighted to welcome them to join our large family of Community Hospital Schools, post primary schools and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in City of Dublin ETB. It is really important that the wishes of local communities in Dublin for state-run, multi-denominational primary education is met and we have no doubt that many more communities will make a decision in the coming years to become Community National Schools (CNS) with City of Dublin ETB.”

Director of Schools at City of Dublin ETB Mark McDonald stated: “We are delighted to welcome the students and staff of St. Enda’s National School to City of Dublin ETB. This well-established school has delivered quality primary education with distinction through the years and is now making history as the first primary school to become a CNS in Dublin city. I look forward to working closely with the management, teachers, staff and parents of the school, as they transition to becoming a Community National School over the coming months.

Announcing the decision, Chairperson of City of Dublin ETB, Councillor Keith Connolly, said, “City of Dublin ETB has a strong record of partnership and collaboration with local communities all over Dublin city and today’s announcement very much reflects that. We would like to thank all those who participated in the consultation process and look forward to working with the school community over the coming months and indeed with many other school communities in Dublin, as they opt to become state, co-educational, multi-denominational Community National Schools in the coming years.”

Find more information of Community National Schools here

Background Information:

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to expand the plurality of our schools to reflect the full breadth of society. Government policy as set out in the Programme for Government is to:

“Achieve the target of at least 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2030, to improve parental choice.”

“Expand and prioritise the transfer of viable schools to Community National Schools.”

“Work with communities to ensure the provision of clear, non-partisan information on the preparation for, and the consequences of, the divestment process and to respond to queries raised.”

The Schools Reconfiguration process aims to assist in achieving the Programme for Government target by transferring existing schools from denominational to multi-denominational patrons, in response to the wishes of local families.

In this context in March 2022, the Minister for Education announced that arrangements are being put in place in a number of towns and areas of cities that have no multi-denominational primary schools at present as part of a pilot reconfiguration arrangement.  The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference (representing the Catholic patrons) and relevant bishops have confirmed their willingness to engage and co-operate fully with the Department in seeking to facilitate a more diverse school patronage in these towns and cities. The pilot areas are:

Arklow	Athlone	Cork*	Dublin*
Dundalk	Galway*	Limerick*	Youghal

*parts of these cities

As part of this process, the Department of Education has made available a number of independent facilitators to work with school patrons and school authorities at a local level and to engage with school authorities, school staff and parents with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos, where there is sufficient demand for this.

An information pack for school communities and parents setting out some general and practical information relating to transfer of patronage was also published in March 2022 and is available here:  https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/811e2-schools-reconfiguration-for-diversity/