Religious authorities should not be banished from engaging politically in the public square, said a prominent Church of Ireland Bishop.

Speaking at a civic service in Limerick on Sunday, Dr Paul Colton, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, said that the separation of Church and State did not mean “no religion in the public space”. It did not mean that religious bodies should stop engaging in national debate or conversation, formal or informal, with civic authorities or that they should not be engaged politically.

He said with many of the issues involving both parties “much of the discourse is bluntly, or simplistically driven by megaphone non-dialogue on social media.”

“There the cry goes up: ‘Get the churches out of it all; it’s none of their business.’ But that is not what separation of church and state means,” he said.

He specifically criticised the manner in which political change tends to occur in Ireland. “We tend, too often, to drift reactively into it. Typically, aggrieved people identify an injustice which they feel strongly, and they protest and pursue change: a good example is the issue of admissions to schools and religious patronage of schools,” he said.

He proposed that there needs to be structured dialogue between the government of the day and religious entities about issues of mutual interest, facilitated by the Department of the Taoiseach. This would, he said, strengthen the proper separation of Church and State.

Bishop Colton favoured the introduction of same-sex marriage in civil law and voted for repeal of the Eighth amendment.