The
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has said that the Government will examine
Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which 
enables institutions such as
schools and hospitals to hire according to the ethos of the religion in
question.
He
was responding to a question from the president of the Teachers’ Union of
Ireland (TUI) Bernie Ruane, who described the provision as “draconian”.
Earlier, the union passed a motion calling on the Government to repeal the
provision.
Mr
Quinn said the programme for government agreed between Fine Gael and Labour did
“talk about moving in this area” adding that he believed it was important to
recognise that Ireland was now “more tolerant and inclusive”.
However
he said could not anticipate what final action the Government would take on
legislation.
“There
is an understandable concern that many people who might contemplate a civil
partnership feel that perhaps they can’t do that because of the action that
might be taken by patrons of some schools. But I would hope that as we move to
complete the Republic and make it pluralist and open and inclusive, that those
fears can be allayed.”
The
Programme for Government outlined by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition said that
people “of non-faith or minority religious backgrounds and publically
identified LGBT people should not be deterred from training or taking up
employment as teachers in the State.”
In
2009, before the second Lisbon referendum, the European Commission told Ireland
that Section 37 was in breach of EU equality regulations.
At
that time, the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition defended the provision, and the
Commission backed down.
However,
in advance of the General Election, Fine Gael refused to commit to defending
Section 37, while Labour committed itself to changing the provision, and
forcing schools to hire homosexual teachers.
This
would make it impossible for Catholic schools to teach Catholic sexual morality
in full.
Meanwhile,
Mr Quinn rejected calls by the union to end the practice of paying the salaries
of teachers in private, fee-paying schools and colleges and instead investing
it in schools in disadvantaged areas.
Ms
Ruane said such private schools had been repeatedly shown to be bottom of the
table when it came to inclusivity, especially with regard to embracing students
with special needs. She challenged Mr Quinn to address what she described as
“educational apartheid”.
However,
Mr Quinn said the State had historically paid teachers’ salaries in all
schools, which had all charged fees until the 1960s, when his predecessor as
minister, Donagh O’Malley, proposed the abolition of fees under a voluntary
discretionary scheme.
In
return for participating in this scheme, some 500 of the 720 post-primary
schools in the State received capitation grants to cover their running costs.
However,
private, fee-paying schools receive no such grants. He had no plans to change
that and stop paying their teachers’ salaries, he said.