Any change to the laws protecting the ethos of religious schools must take account of the wishes of parents, the head of the Catholic church’s education body has warned.
Fr Michael Drumm, head of the Catholic Schools Partnership, said that the government should “keep in mind that schools do not exist primarily to employ teachers but to assist parents in the education of their children.”
“Clearly, very many parents wish, in accordance with their constitutional rights, to provide this education for their children through denominational schools,” he told The Irish Catholic.
Responding to government plans to amend the Employment Equality Act’s exemption for religious organisations, which allows them to hire only employees who will respect their ethos, Fr Drumm said that the current exemption is an attempt to balance the rights of potential employees and the rights of institutions to protect their ethos. “Those who propose to amend it must also seek balance,” he said, pointing out that many European countries have provisions similar to Ireland.
The current exemption is contained in Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act and has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
“European Union employment law clearly recognises the importance of ethos in religious institutions. Any rebalancing of Irish law should take account of the European directives.”
“Denominational schools in Ireland are committed to protecting the rights of teachers. Legislation in this area, however, must maintain a balance with the rights of parents to have their children educated in a school with a living religious ethos and the rights of religious communities to establish and run educational and other institutions which give expression to their faith,” he said.
The Fine Gael-Labour Programme for Government contains a pledge to amend the current exemption. However, the Church has previously indicated that it would be prepared to mount a legal challenge to any such change that would remove from faith-based organisations the right to operate in accordance with a Catholic ethos.
