The Government is to take up a private members’ Bill sponsored by Labour Senators and TDs aimed at curtailing the freedom of religious institutions to hire staff who will respect their ethos.

The bill, which was debated in the Seanad yesterday, proposes to amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act. Section 37 permits institutions such as schools and hospitals run by religious organisations to sack or refuse to hire workers if they believe that they undermine their ethos.

The Bill is being proposed by Labour TDs Aodhán Ó Riordáin, John Lyons, Dominic Hannigan, and Ciara Conway, along with Labour Senators Ivana Bacik and Mary Moran.  

Speaking in the Seanad, Minister of State for Health, Kathleen Lynch said that the Government supported the Bill and would be taking it up as its own legislation.  

She said: “It is important to emphasise that both parties in government fully support this initiative.

“We are proposing not only to welcome the spirit of this Bill, but also to take it on as a Government Bill and subject it to the rigorous scrutiny by the State’s legal advisers necessary to ensure beyond all reasonable doubt that the text will pass constitutional muster.”

She said that she believed the bill was a good one, but stressed that she was not a constitutional lawyer.

It was important to move carefully, Ms Lynch said “because failed reform could do real damage to people’s lives and set us back”.

The amendment provides that where an educational or medical institution is State-funded, that institution cannot give more favourable treatment on religious grounds unless such treatment does not constitute discrimination under any of the other grounds; and the religion of the employee must be a genuine, legitimate and justified occupational requirement.  

The amendment further provides that a State-funded institution cannot take action to prevent the undermining of its ethos unless by reason of the employment itself or the context, the action taken is objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means used are appropriate and necessary.

A final provision in the new section 37(1) provides that, where in any proceedings related to alleged discrimination outlined in the bill, “facts are established by or on behalf of a complainant from which it may be presumed that there has been discrimination in relation to him or her, it is for the respondent to prove the contrary”.