61% of citizens wants the RCC out of schools

In a modern social democracy, if an institution was responsible for the mass rape, torture and assault of children then that institution would no longer be responsible for educating children. Those responsible would be tried and convicted and the institution disbanded. Ireland is not a modern social democracy. Religious orders of the Catholic church was still heavily involved in education.

The citizens of Ireland are in favour of the removal of religious orders from primary education according to the latest Irish Times /Ipsos, MRBI poll.

When asked about the issue, 61 per cent of people said the church should give up control of the school system, 28 per cent said it should maintain its position and 11 per cent had no opinion on the matter.

And so they should. The Catholic church has no place in providing the majority of education. That is the state's responsibility. The RCC can keep control of a few schools for the children of the devout who do not take violence against children seriously.

There is always the argument that the torture, rape and assault of children is the fault of individuals but it is clearly an institutional problem. I have referred to Professor Robert Zimbardo before who has conducted extensive research into the mob and institutional mentality. The RCC in Ireland is a criminal institution. The 'bad apples' defense is a fallacy.

For the past ten years, Bertie Ahern has outsourced the state's responsibilities. While education was outsourced prior to his reign, he did nothing to curb the abuse. It was under his leadership that the institutions were granted limited liability for the torture, rape and violence towards citizens of this state.

Brian Cowen has been equally lax on the issue of the church. Despite the damning reports by Ryan and Murphy little has changed. There are reasons for this. The government does not care about the citizenry. It is unable to multitask. But I believe the real reason behind the lack of action is that certain senior government ministers and senior civil servants are known members of the Knights of Columbanus - a secret society of extreme Catholicism.

Membership in a secret society should be off limits to civil servants and public representatives because of the conflict of interest, obviously. It is so evident that there must be legislation against holding public office and membership in secret societies.

Enough. It is time for the state to take the responsibility of education back, along with everything else they have outsourced. The citizens elect the government to govern and that includes being responsible for consequences. No more quangos. No more passing the buck.