The Equality Authority has invited submissions on Section 37 of the Employment Equaliy Act, which protects the ethos of denominational schools.

It announced yesterday that it was engaging in a consultation process in relation “to a proposed amendment to s37 of the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2011”.

Section 37 upholds the right of religious organisations not to employ those it believes would undermine their ethos. This right was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and Justice Minister Alan Shatter (pictured) have already said they intend to look at amending the law, which currently allows institutions with a denominational ethos, such as schools, hospitals and charities, to refuse to hire people whose lifestyle are in obvious conflict with that ethos.

Section 37 has come under sustained attack in the past number of years from trade unions and politicians who claim that it directly discriminates against homosexuals.

The Equality Authority is set to be merged with the Irish Human Rights Commission in a new body called the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

In a statement inviting submissions, the Authority said that The Programme for Government stated: “People of non-faith  or  minority  religious backgrounds and publicly identified LGBT people  should  not  be  deterred  from training or taking up employment as teachers in the State”.

It added that Mr Shatter had, in merging the Equality Authority with the Irish Human Rights Commission set out “that he wanted to address the amendment  of s37 of the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2011 with the Commission members as a priority matter”.

Last November, Mr Shatter said that Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act is unfair to gay and lesbian teachers and must be amended.

In an address to Fine Gael’s LGBT branch, he said that the Supreme Court in 1996 had found that section 37 was “a reasonable balancing in legislation of the different rights involved, including chiefly the right to earn a living and the rights to freedom of religion and association”.

But he said he was “concerned that the balance in practice is not a fair one and that in practice this provision can operate in a way that is unfair to LGBT persons”.

Submissions should be sent to [email protected] and should be no more than 2,000 words in length. The deadline is 5.00pm on Friday November 1st 2013.