Civil servants dealing with the Catholic Church should be “screened” to ensure they do not show “inappropriate 
deference” to the Church, according to a motion to be debated at the Labour Party Conference in April, according to The Irish Independent.
The motion says that civil servants “who feel they are ‘Catholic first and Irish second’ should seek promotion in other organs of the State”.
The proposal is contained in a document which called the Clontarf Report, has been adopted by the Dublin North Central constituency council of the Labour Party and the motion is being proposed by the Clontarf branch of the party.
The proposal, Recommendation 15 in the report, says: “All senior officials in state bodies which are likely to have to deal with the Catholic Church should be screened to ensure that they will not show inappropriate deference to the Catholic Church. Those who feel they are ‘Catholic first and Irish second’ should seek promotion in other organs of the State.”
The Labour Party conference will take place in NUI Galway in mid-April. The proposal would become official party policy if passed, although it would not necessarily become Government policy.
The Clontarf Report, called ‘Illegal Religious Discrimination in National Schools in Ireland’ also asserts that allowing denominational schools to admit children of their own faith first, is illegal. Report author and party activist John Suttle claims enrolment policies based on religion were never allowed under the law..
However, the Equal Status Act explicitly permits denominational schools to admit those of their own faith first.
Labour TD, Aodhan O’Riordain for Dublin North Central, told The Irish Catholic recently that he believes “religious ethos has no place in the education sector of a modern republic”.
Last week, the primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said that the Catholic Church remained committed “to providing Catholic Schools to cater for the needs of parents who wish to exercise their constitutional right to the provision of faith education”.
He said the Church held the view “that the children of Catholic parents have first claim on admission to Catholic schools, just as Protestant children have first claim to admission to Protestant schools, and Muslim children have first claim to admission to Islamic schools and so on”.