Around 90% of our schools are still under the patronage of religious organisations at primary school level.

A survey released by the Department of Education indicated that while 60% of parents are happy for their children to attend religious schools, 40% are not.

The results were published over the summer, and illustrated how nationally, 40.2% of responding households linked to a denominational school selected a multi-denominational ethos as their preferred configuration.

This contrasts with the current primary school landscape where roughly 90% of schools operate under a Catholic or denominational patron.

15 years ago, the then government committed to a programme of school patronage divestment with a promise to introduce more choice into the system and while some progress has been made, the number of schools still under a religious patron remains high.

Speaking on the fact that the majority of parents surveyed said they were fine with their child being educated in a religious school on The Claire Byrne Show, Karin Fischer, Professor at the University of Orléans in France discussed whether or not there's a slight unwillingness by Irish people to move away from the status quo.

She said: "I would suggest that there's a very strong government inertia. One does get the feeling that a lot of people do want change all the same.

"If things were explained [well], I think that a lot of people in Ireland would be ready to listen to that and would be ready for change.

"It seems to me that the successive governments have come up with incremental piecemeal change that is very prudent.

"But politically, perhaps people in Ireland would be ready to move on more quickly."

The state looking after education and religion seeing to religious education outside of the school setting is a model that is seen in some democracies around the world.

One example Ms Fischer gave was Quebec, which has a similar situation to Ireland, and they "changed the structure of the system".

She continued: "And they changed the structure of the system. They introduced a network of boards with kind of local authorities.

"And the Catholic Church broadly accepted its responsibility for religious education outside school. So it's perfectly feasible."

The Catholic patrons have said publicly that they "recognise the state's responsibility to provide greater diversity of school choice", and that they support the decision that was taken 15 years ago to pursue divestment.

Main image: School pupils at a St Patrick's Day Mass. Pic: Stuart Boulton / Alamy