Reports that the Government could back a Bill which would deny religious institutions the right not to hire people 
who could damage their ethos and to take “reasonable” action against those who do is very worrying for those of us who value religious freedom.
The legislation, which is being proposed by a group of Labour TDs and Senators, would amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which allows religious institutions to protect their right to have on staff people who share their ethos or at least will not undermine it.
Weakening Section 37 would mean that religious institutions including schools would be less able to defend their identity. It would be yet another step in the direction of State-enforced ‘equality absolutism’.
It would place the presumed rights of teachers above the rights of parents who want to send their children to a school with a particular kind of ethos.
Several things are worth pointing out. The first is that the Employment Equality Act specifically says that it is not discrimination for a religious employer to act against a member of staff who is undermining their ethos.
The Labour group backing this Bill should ask themselves whether it would be ‘discrimination’ for Labour to refuse to employ someone in a key position in the party who was pro-Fianna Fail? Obviously it wouldn’t be because being sympathetic to Labour would clearly be a key criterion for such a position.
Secondly, Section 37 has already survived scrutiny by the Supreme Court.
Third, it was the previous Fine Gael/Labour Government which introduced the Employment Equality Act and Section 37 and lawyers for the State told the Supreme Court that without Section 37, the Act would probably be unconstitutional because it would not protect freedom of religion sufficiently.
Fourth, Section 37 has survived scrutiny by the European Commission. It does not fall foul of EU equality law.
Finally, if the Government does back this Bill, the Catholic hierarchy must be prepared to tell it that all bets are off and refuse to transfer any schools to new patron bodies.
