A father has gathered almost 20,000 signatures on a petition to get rid of an amendment which allows schools to grant preference for places to baptised Catholic children.

Paddy Monahan, who is a barrister says he started the campaign when he realised the law meant his son could be turned away from schools because he is not baptised.

The petition for equal school access and the removal of religious barriers to taxpayer-funded primary is to be handed into Leinster House tomorrow afternoon.

Paddy Monahan told Newstalk Breakfast earlier : "This law puts ridiculous pressure on parents, essentially to get their children baptised in order to be in the top category. About 97% of schools have enrolment criteria and in the top category in all those schools is whether or not your child is baptised. Then in the second category will be if the child was baptised in another area. Further down the list is "other" - my child is in the "other" category".

"It's a tax-payer funded school like all the schools I'm talking about. But as the law stands he won't get in".

"I mean briefly the law - it's in the Equal Status Act - but what it says is schools with a religious ethos can essentially turn away children on the basis of religion as soon as they're over-subscribed".

"The difficult is in Ireland...about 96/97 percent of schools have that religious ethos" he added.

Mr Monahan's son is only eight-months-old, but he says parents have to think years ahead.