Who owns the solar panels in schools and why does nobody care?

MacBook Pro Microphone & FaceTime HD Camera:

Hello?

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Hello.

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You're very welcome to if I were the

minister for education, I regular

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podcast, where I look at the world

of primary education in Ireland

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and let you know what I would do.

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If I were the minister for

education, this is Simon Lewis.

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On this week's show, I'll be talking about

solar panels and schools, but maybe not

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from the angle you might be expecting.

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As many of you might know, the government

decided that every school in the country

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would be given a set of solar panels.

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And the main talk from those in the

profession has been why The decision

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was made that no matter what size

your school is, you'll be getting

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the same number of solar panels.

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So very tiny schools will be

getting the same number of solar

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panels as a very big school, which

of course doesn't make any sense.

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However, I don't think I'd be able

to make an entire podcast out.

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of that.

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And instead, I want to look at the solar

panel issue from a different perspective.

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And that is who's going to own them.

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If you enjoy this podcast, please

consider subscribing to it.

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And I'd love to hear your feedback

either by sending me a message on

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X or Instagram or any of the other

platforms I'm on, or you can simply

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review on your favorite podcasting app.

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And without further ado, let's

find out the angle I'm looking at.

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I remember watching The Founder.

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nearly 10 years ago, about the

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story of McDonald's, of all places.

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And You're probably wondering

where I'm going to go with this.

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But, I was watching it thinking it

was going to be one of these feel good

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tales of ambition and perseverance

where the small man had a dream and

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persevered with it and succeeded.

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And at first, that's

exactly what it delivered.

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A struggling salesman spotting

potential in a small burger joint

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and turning it into a global empire.

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But as the story unfolded

The tone darkened.

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The character of Ray Kroc, who's

the main, the anti hero of this

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film, his strategy wasn't really

about selling burgers in the end.

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It was about owning the land.

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He didn't just expand McDonald's.

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He took control, pushing out the

original owners and ensuring his

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dominance by controlling the property.

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It was a masterclass in paradigmatics

and one that I would think, if

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you know me, resonated with me far

beyond McDonald's or fast food.

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It reminded me of something

much closer to home.

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The recent government rollout

of free solar panels for schools

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absolutely is mirroring how the

Irish education system works in a

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really, to me, a very unsettling way.

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While the state is funding the

infrastructure upgrades for the

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solar panels, who actually owns

those panels once they're installed?

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Most Irish primary schools, as are

still under church patronage, meaning

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that the buildings And any upgrades

technically belong to the Catholic

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Church in the Vatican, not in Ireland.

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Just like McDonald's, the state funds

and operates the schools, but the

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church keeps the ultimate control, i.

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e.

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Perhaps that's why the founder

had such a profound effect on me.

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I guess the only difference is that

it's far easier to eat in a restaurant

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that isn't McDonald's than it is

not to attend a school that isn't

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under Catholic patronage, or any

religious patronage for that matter.

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Anyway, this arrangement to me,

I tell you, is emblematic of the

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broader issue in Irish education.

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The church owns the infrastructure.

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The state funds the running costs,

the teachers, many of whom don't

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even practice the faith, and expect

them to uphold the religious ethos

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in their professional capacity.

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But when it comes to actual churchgoing,

most of these teachers, and parents,

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and school communities don't actually

take part in the church community.

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Now they're willing to work in these

Catholic institutions, the teachers that

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is, the parents are willing, very happy in

some cases to send their children to these

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Catholic institutions, and by that uphold

the ethos, deliver the Catholic sacraments

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or take part in the Catholic sacraments,

enforce the Catholic rules or obey the

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rules and take part fully in the mass.

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And for teachers, though, But only if

they occur during their working day.

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Outside of their working day, all of their

missionary work, these teachers who are

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happy to work in catholic schools, all

of their faith forming, those who are

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happy to work in catholic schools, all of

their love of teaching children to love

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Jesus Christ outside of their working day.

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And I was very interested to see

an article that was in the I think

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it was in the local paper in Cork

where Cork schools and the Bishop

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clashed over communion celebrations.

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The teachers were expressing concern

over the new diocesan, a diocesan

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policy requiring sacramental

preparations to be held on weekends

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and outside of school hours.

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Because, when you sign up for a

religion, your religion only takes

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place between 9 o'clock and 2.

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30.

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If, to me, and this is where

I have sympathy, people often

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accuse me of being anti Catholic

or being against Catholicism.

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I'm absolutely not, because I think that

if we are to have Catholic schools, and if

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this is something that we're supposed to

have and we're supposed to be in favor of,

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and it seems to the majority of people are

quite happy with it you can't be unhappy

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that when the, when Catholicism, which

is supposed to permeate throughout the

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school day, they expect you to uphold the

ethos, they expect you to take part, you

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promise to take part in the sacraments

and teach the sacraments and pass on

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the love of Jesus Christ and so on.

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That doesn't mean it only

happens during your school day.

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You can, I think if you're going

to sign up to the Catholic church,

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part of that deal is that you

prepare children for the sacraments.

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And if those sacraments take place as

they should , on a weekend mass I'm

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sorry, my sympathy dies off a little bit.

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If you're if I and my sympathy dies

off for you, if you're happy enough

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with everything else, if you're

reluctantly maybe working in a Catholic

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school system and you're, then you.

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You know then fair enough.

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I suppose where I my sympathy is ends

a little bit Is that it's because you

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don't want to have it on the weekend

You're quite happy Monday to Friday

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at nine to have to which you know

essentially by doing that, you're

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complicit in some ways, maybe, maybe not

overtly complicit, but you're covertly

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complicit in keeping that system going

where people like me and people who

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are from minoritized backgrounds can't

become teachers or can't work in these

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systems because you have signed up.

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To, and you have agreed in an interview

and you have and you quite happily

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teach the, the growing love program

or whatever it is and defend it when

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people like me criticize it and call me

anti Catholic when I criticize the fact

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that we have this sort of stuff and.

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When I, when I see articles like this,

when teachers are giving out that they

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have to take part in the sacraments

outside of the school day, which I think,

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actually, to be fair, in most areas of

the country, that is the general practice,

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and maybe this wasn't the general practice

in Cork, but at the end of the day,

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this is, you, you are an employee of the

Catholic Church, of the Catholic Church.

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When you become a teacher and you agree

to be that and actually, ironically

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as well, the bishops directive

is a step in the right direction.

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It shifts religious rights back into

the hands of parishes and families.

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However, it seems.

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It seems to me and maybe I'm being

a bit harsh here not, not maybe that

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they want the status quo, which is to

have a Catholic system, which suits

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their, their level of Catholicism and

certainly if they don't want it, they're

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quite happy within it because I don't

hear them all giving out every day.

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There's 43, 000 teachers.

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And I, if I hear 20 of them giving out

about the system being controlled by the

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Catholic educate by Catholic church Okay.

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So, I think that would suggest to me

they're happy with the status quo,

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basically where a system where religion

is woven into the fabric of school life,

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where sacraments are scheduled like

a class trip and where no one has to

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think very hard about what that means.

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That's the status quo.

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And in other words, you see people

like that see themselves as, they

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see the sacraments as a school

event and not a religious rite of

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passage, which of course it is.

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And I think You know, it can't

be a school event anymore, not

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with the diversity in classrooms.

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And we really, really have to, unravel

this at this point where we have a number

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of children who for possibly months on

end are not Not involved in what's going

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on in the class, because the teacher at

that time is working for the Catholic

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Church and for the Catholic Church only,

and it's, it's something that needs to

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change, as I often argue, but let me, let

me go on because maybe I'm wrong but going

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back to that film, The Founder, where

Croc keeps McDonald's golden arches, but

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takes away the original vision of those

McDonald brothers who actually just wanted

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to make Most Irish people seem to want

to keep Catholic traditions alive without

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any of the faith that once justified them.

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I think every single school has a

story about a child that skipped

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the church part of the communion

and went straight to the hotel.

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And people seem to love that story.

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And they think it's really funny.

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I've even heard people

say up fair play to them.

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At least they're honest.

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I'm sure you've heard someone even

say at a communion, like particularly

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The lad standing at the back

of the church at the communion.

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Hup, I'll see you at the confirmation.

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Implying that they're not going to

set foot in the church until then.

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And nobody seems to think

this is absolutely outrageous.

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I, I find it outrageous.

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I'm not even Catholic.

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That people are just taking the absolute

Mickey out of the church, and it'd be

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fine if it wasn't at the expense of so

many people, and again, people like me

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who are minorities and minority who don't,

who can't get a job in 96 percent of

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schools to the thousands and thousands

of children out there who have to sit

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at the backs of classrooms every day,

and certainly during sacrament seasons.

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Potentially completely left out

of what's going on in school.

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And a lot of people are so rooted in

this tradition that they don't even,

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and even them themselves, they don't

even have the slightest belief in it.

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And they still defend it to the death.

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I'd say you might be listening to

this going, getting really, might

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be angry at me for saying this.

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Because this is something you're so used

to and you're so uncritical about it.

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That you don't see the

impact of it on other people.

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And maybe you do.

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And you say tough luck.

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The majority think it's fine.

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So therefore it is fine.

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Could you imagine?

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I always find, it's

interesting to look at this.

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And this is obviously a religious thing.

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And religion is very emotive.

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It's very personal.

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It's very private.

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People really, really look at

religion in maybe a different

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way to lots of other things.

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Let's say it was a different type of

discrimination because that's, at the

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end of the day, it is discrimination.

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The fact that I can't work in 96

percent of schools on the, and the

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only reason for that is because

of the religion I don't have.

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And the only reason children have to

sit at the back of the class for half an

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hour a day and can't take part in all the

sacraments is because of the religion.

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It's for no other reason.

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And that is a grounds for discrimination.

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But if we looked at this from a

different angle, let's say the reason

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that I couldn't work in a school was

because of the color of my skin or

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because I was a member of the traveler

community or because of my gender that

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I wouldn't be allowed to get a job.

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There would be.

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People would be an uproar and I would

imagine people would be absolutely

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outraged that because I was a different

skin tone or because of whatever

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anything else except religion, that I

couldn't work in 96 percent of schools.

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I think people defend things because

it's religion and because, and I

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think that's we have to look at that.

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And and we have to.

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We have to realize that

it's no longer okay.

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The school is not an extension

of the Catholic Church anymore.

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It is, but it shouldn't

be an extension of.

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It's a public service that all

children and all adults in those

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environments should have equality and

shouldn't be discriminated against

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no more than you would for skin tone.

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Anyway, it one thing you might be

interested in because another article

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came up in my in my feed about.

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Leish County Council, because it

isn't just schools, and there's

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a controversy over prayer at the

Leish County Council meetings.

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And it's a really good example of this.

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And I'm going to call

it selective secularism.

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So I would say the majority of people

that are in Leish County Council

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Are culturally Catholic at best, or

certainly culturally Christian if

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they're in some way they I don't think

they're at mass every day every week.

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I don't think they're praying every day.

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But when it comes to their county

council meetings, they start with a

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prayer and In some ways I'm going to

call this selective secularism because

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in all aspects of their, of council

meetings, it's completely secular.

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They're not talking about how the church

should be, have more power within the

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county council or within the county.

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But when it comes to the start of it, they

want this Christian prayer to be said.

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I'm not going to read the prayer.

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But one councillor called for an end

to it at the start of meetings, arguing

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that a moment of silence would be more

inclusive, which of course it would be.

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Yet the vast majority, in fact, all of the

other counselors refuse to even entertain

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the idea and their argument, and their

only argument is, it's always been done.

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It's always been done.

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And it's the same logic, this same logic,

that because we've done something for

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a very long time it keeps the Catholic

Church entrenched in Irish schools.

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And people who would never dream of

going to Mass will fight tooth and nail

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to keep these Catholic traditions in

place, as long as they don't actually

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have to practice them themselves.

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It's a really bizarre and silly logic.

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self serving mindset in my view.

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One that allows people to reap the

cultural and social benefits of

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Catholicism while discarding the

obligations of the actual faith.

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They want the cultural stuff, but they

don't want the actual faith part of it.

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And it wouldn't really matter if it didn't

affect anyone else, but of course it does.

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Councillor Paddy Buggy, who's on the

Leach County Council, went even further,

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stating that since most of the council

consists of Christians or non believers,

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that the prayers should remain.

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The outright dismissal of non believers

as having any right to object is the

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perfect encapsulation of the problem.

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The mad thing is that if there were,

he said, if there were Jews or Muslims,

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we'd probably have to have a look at it.

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But non believers are

completely disregarded.

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As if they're just a complete

inconvenience to culture and I don't

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know, the assumption that those who don't

subscribe to a religious belief should

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simply accept public prayer is precisely

the kind of cultural Catholicism that

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allows the church to maintain power

instead It's an act of erasure, I would

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say, a refusal to acknowledge that

nonbelievers should have an equal right

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to participate in civic life without

being subjected to religious rituals.

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And we have, I would, I think at

this stage we have a huge percentage

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of our teaching population, maybe

not the majority at the moment,

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but certainly a high minority who

are subjected to religious rituals

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despite not being nonbelievers, but

not believing in a personal faith.

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God.

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Going back to the rollout of free

solar panels, they're just the

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latest example of most people's

complete blindness to this issue.

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Every euro that the state spends

on schools, whether it's for solar

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panels, new buildings, maintenance,

or even paying the heating bills,

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ultimately benefits the church.

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And Again, I don't know if

people really care about this.

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The Vatican, which is not even

an Irish institution, through its

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vast network of property ownership,

quietly profits while pretending

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that they're taking a back seat.

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We never hear.

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Of the fact that when the solar panels

are installed, that they become the

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property of the Vatican state, the Irish

taxpayer continues to pour money into

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these Catholic owned infrastructures,

and nobody says a word, and it really

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puzzles me about this when it comes to

schools, because nobody says a word.

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Except when it's the

National Maternity Hospital.

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Now, when the National Maternity

Hospital was at risk of being handed

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over to a religious order, that

proposal sparked protests, public

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debate, and widespread opposition.

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You might remember the slogans, keep

your rosaries away from my ovaries.

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People were disgusted that a public state

building and all of its bills it would

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acquire would be paid for by the state.

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But gifted to the Catholic Church.

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Yet when it came to schools and when

it comes to schools, the same people

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who rally against church influence in

healthcare and want their want their the

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rosaries away from their ovaries, when

it comes to that, the same people who

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rally against that seem really unfazed

by the fact that Billions, billions in

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taxpayer money flow directly into Vatican

owned property, into church bodies,

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the same ones as the as the National

Maternity Hospital every single year.

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And in fact, I bet the majority of people

who stood at the altar beside the priest

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while their child pressed their palms

together, holding those very rosary beads

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they wanted kept away from their ovaries.

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Now, I ask myself, All the time.

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Why does this contradiction exist?

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Why does this cognitive dissonance exist?

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Why is there an instinctive rejection

of church control in hospitals

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and almost all other aspects of

Irish life, but not in schools?

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Is it because schools affect only children

who don't have anything to say or who are

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too small and may not have anything to say

in the matter, who just think it's normal?

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Or is it simply a matter of familiarity?

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Because Catholic schools have always

been the norm and people don't

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question the church's grip on them.

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Maybe they don't think about it.

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Back to The Founder, this film

that really got me thinking,

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it made an anti hero of Kroc.

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You didn't like him, at the end.

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The narrative of the story was

that the viewer was going to

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be disgusted by his behavior.

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And we were.

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It was immoral.

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It was unethical.

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He won.

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He did win.

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But he wasn't a hero in the end.

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Did he care?

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I don't think so.

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He became rich.

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And people eat in McDonald's all the time.

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It's a huge success.

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To me, it's the exact same model being

used by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

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And it is more effective than

having to directly manage the day

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to day running of the schools.

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If the church had to run and

finance the schools itself, its

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power would certainly diminish.

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Instead, it allows the state to pay

for Everything while maintaining its

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ownership, the schools are well funded.

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Maybe they're not.

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They're well funded, but

they're certainly funded.

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They're modern and they're comfortable

in most places, but all on church

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owned land, giving them under, leaving

them under religious influence,

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regardless of changing societal values.

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The question is.

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How long is this going to be tolerated?

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At what point will Ireland's cultural

Catholics stop pretending that the

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state funded church infrastructure

isn't exactly the same, isn't exactly

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as vulgar as Crock's Macdonald's empire?

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And why is there no public outrage

over this when there is so much noise

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about the National Maternity Hospital?

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The Irish government

claims to be a republic.

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But every cent spent on

Catholic schools says otherwise.

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And until people confront this

contradiction, the church will

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continue to keep doing what it's doing.

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And not through devotion or

prayers, but through ownership.

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So there you have it.

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I hope it gave you some food for thought.

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If nothing else, those solar panels that

you are getting are going to be owned by

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the Vatican, the state of the Vatican.

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Maybe you don't care about that

and That's entirely up to you.

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You may not have even thought about it.

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As I said in my post, get your get

your rosaries out of my ovaries.

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But you're happy enough to have

your panels in your chapels.

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But it's it's definitely

something worth thinking about.

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Look, I always come across as angry

on this issue and I can't help it.

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I just find it really, really frustrating

that the cognitive dissonance where you

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tens of thousands of people protested

about the National Maternity Hospital.

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And yet the very next day, we're

happy enough to to stand beside

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a priest while their kids were

holding the very same rosary beads.

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It's similar to when marriage

equality came in, that people were

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Absolutely given out stink about the

patriarchy and how, the, how, and

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this about the Catholic church and

their control over marriage, and equal

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marriage was going to be a thing.

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And then the very next day, standing in

the same church beside the priest with

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their hands clapped at the rosary beads.

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I just, I don't get the

cognitive dissonance.

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It really, it baffles me

to be honest with you.

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And I suppose.

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This is just yet another thing and yet

another angle about how this all works.

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Look, you might not agree with me, and

that's absolutely fine, I don't mind.

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Ultimately, I find always religion,

is a very emotive thing, so it

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kind of skews people people get

very defensive when they hear this.

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But try and look at this

as if it wasn't religion.

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Look at it as if it was maybe look at

it as if maybe it was something else.

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That's discriminatory,

such as, colour of skin.

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And, and maybe read listen to this

back and replace anything I've

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said about religion with colour of

skin or a member of the Traveller

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community and just see how it sounds.

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And maybe, maybe it just

gives a different angle.

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It's not different, the thing is, we

have nine grounds of discrimination

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and religion is one of them.

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And it certainly affects a growing,

growing number of people and

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affects people's careers completely.

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So, look.

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That's probably all I have to

say on the matter for now, and

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I hope you enjoyed the episode.

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Until next time,

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MacBook Pro Microphone & FaceTime HD Camera-2:

thanks so much for

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listening all the very best.

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Bye-bye.