The Catholic Church in Ireland has established a strategic planning group to address all aspects of Catholic education on the island.
The decision to do so follows a seminar at Maynooth, on February 7th and 8th last, which was hosted by the Irish Bishops' Conference and the Conference of Religious of Ireland.
The strategic planning group has been asked to prepare a plan for the provision and development of church interests in education in Ireland.
It will be expected to establish priorities and clarify the church's future intent in education and school provision.
It is expected this will be set within a tight time-frame and will lead to civil and canonical negotiations.
The strategic review will include a wide-ranging process of consultation that will invite input from partners in education.
Meanwhile, a survey of primary schools in the deaneries of Fingal North, Finglas and Maynooth, in Dublin's Catholic archdiocese, has shown that children from 104 countries attend.
Of the 125 schools which received documents last December, 92 completed the survey, representing a response rate of 73.6 per cent.
One school, St Patrick's at Corduff, has 140 international pupils or 46.6 per cent of the total.
At the Archbishop Ryan school in Lucan south there are 180 international pupils or 38.3 per cent of the total.
Schools with over 20 per cent of their pupils from an international background were those at Corduff, Lucan south, Mountview, Huntstown, Blanchardstown, Blakestown, Porterstown and Laurel Lodge.
Those with between 10 and 20 per cent international pupils included schools at Mulhuddart, Deansrath, Clondalkin, Celbridge, Lucan, Rush, Swords, River Valley, Balbriggan, Navan Road, Sruleen, Chapelizod, Rowlagh, Bawnogue, Leixlip and Maynooth.
Faith groups represented included atheist, Baha'i, Buddhist, Catholic, Christian (non-Catholic), Greek Orthodox, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Russian Orthodox, Sikh and Shinto.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said the report illustrated the positive role that Catholic schools in Dublin are playing in helping immigrants become active contributors to the social fabric, while respecting their wide diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds.
