No deal is done yet on the teaching of religion in one of the Country's first VEC run primary schools it has been confirmed this week. In a letter to all Navan town councillors this week Navan parish administrator Fr Declan Hurley said that no discussions had taken place between Navan parish and the VEC regarding catechetics in the school.
He also said that no approach had been made to the Bishop of Meath Dr Michael Smith regarding this possibility and added that it was therefore premature of the VEC representatives to give any guarantees.
Earlier this month the VEC had said that children attending the school would be able to have religious instruction in his or her own faith.
This would have meant that a Catholic child attending the new school would be able to make his or her First Communion and Confirmation from the school, while a Jewish child would be able to prepare at the school for his Bar Mitzvah.
Speaking to the Meath Chronicle newspaper this week the CEO of Meath VEC Peter Kierans declined to comment directly on Fr Hurleys letter but said that once the VEC was able to get a profile of the religious requirements of parents the VEC would then have discussions “with all the religious bodies involved.”
He added that the matter of First Holy Communion was a long way down the road because children enrolling for the 2010 academic year would be only four years old.
SIC: CIN