Schools have no legal basis to compel students to attend religious instruction classes, according to a report to be published this week.

Sometimes there is no supervisor for a child who is opted out of RE meaning he or she has to remain in the class.
Atheist Ireland has sent a 21-page legal opinion to the Department of Education on the right to opt out of religious instruction under provisions contained in the Constitution.

The group has long maintained that children in State-funded schools are either forced to attend religious instruction or face obstacles in opting out of these classes. The legal opinion by barrister James Kane states that pupils have a right to not attend religious instruction, under article 44.2.4 of the Constitution.

Mr Kane’s view is that schools are obliged to use their State funding to facilitate this right which encompasses, at the very least, the right to leave the classroom during religious instruction while remaining supervised. The document states that there is “decent legal argument” that these pupils must be taught another subject.