The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has called on Catholic schools to address the educational needs of Travellers "more effectively".
Speaking at a mass to mark the start of the new school year Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said all the indications were that Travellers remained persistently among the most disadvantaged educationally.
Dr Martin's comments come several weeks after two Catholic schools in his archdiocese became a focus of public controversy.
It emerged that a Traveller boy was the only child from Ballyfermot's De La Salle primary school who was refused a place this year at the local De La Salle secondary school.
After the issue was highlighted by RTÉ News, the secondary school reversed its decision and offered the 12-year-old child a place.
Dr Martin grew up in Ballyfermot and is himself a past pupil of De La Salle primary school.
Dr Martin said educational policy must always have within it a priority option for those whose educational opportunity was limited in any way.
He said fighting poverty was not just about handouts, but about enabling. The Archbishop said enabling required flexibility and recognition of difference of needs.
He said those who suffered from educational disadvantage or had special needs should always be given pride of place in policy making and funding.
Quality education was a fundamental right of all, he said, and a requirement of our respect for the dignity of the weakest in society.
