Catholic parents have been urged by Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to send their children to schools with a broad ethnic mix.
The archbishop said that everybody, including Catholic school authorities, had the responsibility to avoid a two-tier or elitist education system.
Dr Martin was celebrating Mass in Rathfarnham to mark the start of the new school year.
This past month has seen a new twist in the growing school scarcity crisis with the establishment of two emergency schools overwhelmingly for immigrants' children, many of whom had been turned away from the archbishop's over-subscribed schools.
The archbishop said: 'Integration is a challenge for all. Integration is not just for the poor. It would be tragic and dangerous if the current debate were to lead parents to consider how they might 'opt out' of integrated education by seeking schools that might not have a broad ethnic mix.
'We all, including providers of Catholic education at primary and secondary level, have the responsibility to avoid a two tier or elitist education system.'
