Just to answer some points:
Homeschooling in Ireland:
Check out the following site for information on eduction in Ireland.
http://www.movetoireland.com/movepag/schover.htm
The Irish constitution allows for homeschooling and is adopted by some up to Secondary School. I think the Dept of Education may check that the home education is suitable, but I am guessing this is typical in all countries.
There are a number of sites concerning this topic, e.g.
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/reg ... reland.htm
Teaching Irish in Ireland:
Irish is a mandatory subject right up to Leaving Certificate (UK: A-Levels) for students in Ireland. An exemption can be granted from this if the pupil has studied abroad for a number of years. See
http://www.oasis.gov.ie/education/prima ... irish.html for details
It is essential that the student get an "exemption" granted, as when applying for University in Ireland, some Universities have Irish as a "required subject" and a student without an exemption who has not passed Irish will not be considered.
http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/informatio ... c/viii.asp
479. All Primary and Post-Primary pupils are required to study Irish unless they are specifically exempted from doing so by the conditions of exemption drawn up by the Department, which are mainly concerned with pupils who have been partly educated abroad before enroling in a school in Ireland and pupils with particular learning disabilities.
Roman-Catholic Schools
It is indeed true that the majority of schools in Ireland are RC based. This is historic really, as Catholicism was banned during English rule and as Catholics were not admitted to Education, the RC Church setup schools to educate the Catholics. As the RC church and the parishes funded these schools, and until recently it was mostly clergy (nuns, brothers) who taught in the schools, the churches are still involved albeit to a much lesser extent.
There are a number of Protestant/Presbyterian primary schools, and an increasing number of other secular schools, but religions are usually mixed in secondary and vocational (technical) schools .
This will most likely change given the ever increasing number of Immigrants to Ireland and the growing backlash against the RC Church in the Republic. Religious eduction is confined to Religious classes, and does not permeate the curriculum of other subjects. Currently at primary school level, children who are not RC who attend a RC school, are given other work to do during Religious education so are not forced to partake. At secondary school level, they may leave the classroom and go to another room to study. The concept of "Ethics" classes, seems to only have caught on in Multi-denominational schools. Again, this may change if there is a large enough percentage of students to warrant another teacher of another faith.
Entry of spouse of EU National to Ireland
Your non-EU spouse can apply for a D-Spouse visa to join their spouse in Ireland. Such an application should be made to the Irish Embassy in the country in which you live. This should take 6-8 weeks to process. The application is quite straightforward, and requires only the following documentation
- 1. Application form
2. Marriage Certificate
3. Original passport (applicant)
4. Copy of passport (yours)
5. Evidence of EU Nationals Employment in Ireland
-or-
5. Evidence of how applicant will support yourself
6. Accommodation details
On entering the country the non-EU spouse should register with the GNIB for a residence card.
Work Permit/Auth/Visa for spouse of EU National in Ireland
If you read other posts in this forum you will see details of this. There is a lot of uncertainty on how this works, but here is a brief overview.
Process 1
Apply via form EU_1 to Dept of Justice, wait six months, get work auth
Process 2
Go to GNIB and have them grant your spouse a residence permit with work auth. As your spouse is not from a "visa-required" country, I imagine he will get away with this one.
