The Deputy Secretary General of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has attacked the Iona Institute for defending the right of religious schools not to employ individuals they believe will undermine their ethos.

In a speech yesterday at INTO annual congress, Mr Noel Ward quoted an article by a representative of the Institute which said that removing Section 37 of the Employment Act would require schools to employ people who undermined their ethos “in word or deed”.

Section 37 gives religious organisations, including schools, allows such organizations not to employ individuals who they believe will undermine their ethos.

Mr Ward asked: “What kind of deed could be imagined? The author provides examples of people who might undermine ethos and the first of these is ‘an openly homosexual teacher’.

“Two issues arise here. First, it appears that ‘openly’ is the undermining factor and the message is to hide your orientation unless you’re heterosexual.

“Second, how on earth can a teacher simply by being homosexual undermine a school’s ethos? What kind of weak, uncertain ethos is it that can be undermined just because we all know a teacher is gay or lesbian?” Mr Ward asked.

Mr Ward told the conference that, even if gay or cohabiting teachers were not in any way undermining the ethos of the school in which they taught, there was evidence that some employers may take the view that their lifestyle or orientation amounts to “undermining”.

He said it was time to confine the relevant Section 37 in the equality legislation to history.

Mary Loftus of the union’s Central Executive Committee felt that the section provided an out clause for denominational schools that left teachers in a very vulnerable position.

A motion deploring the continuing existence of the exemption and demanding its removal was unanimously adopted.

The position of The Iona Institute is that Section 37 is necessary to protect religious freedom. In addition, in 1997 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Section 37.