The Education Minister has admitted that her long-awaited overhaul of school admissions will not be passed under this government.

Jan O'Sullivan says her Schools Admissions Bill - originally published by Ruairí Quinn two years ago - will not be dealt with during this Dáil term.

The Bill has been criticised by the past pupils unions of some fee-paying schools, and by the Catholic Church.

But in the Dáil this morning, Minister O'Sullivan has admitted there simply is not enough time to pass it:

"I would have liked to have got Dáil time and Seanad time to bring it through the Houses of the Oireachtas. I am not kicking it to touch, if it can still be done I will do it, but I am being realistic in terms of the Oireachtas calendar, in so far as we only have next week now in the Dáil." 

Earlier, she told Newstalk Breakfast that she favours amending the Equal Status Act to deal with the issue of school admissions:

Meanwhile, Maria Daly, President of the Irish Primary Principal's Network spoke to Breakfast:

The Minister has meanwhile indicated that she is to remove Rule 68, which gives religion preferential status as a subject in schools.