Legislation currently before the Oireachtas poses a serious threat to the right of faith schools to protect their ethos if passed without amendment.

According to a report in this week’s Irish Catholic, the Education (Amendment) Bill 2012, introduced in the Seanad earlier this month, removes the right for school patrons to agree before a teacher is redeployed from another school.

This would mean that denominational schools would not be able to block the appointment of a teacher who is deemed hostile towards the ethos of the school.

Currently, other legislation protects the right of denominational institutions, including schools, to ensure that employees and perspective employees do nothing that would undermine their religious ethos.

However, the new legislation, proposed by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn removes the need for schools to agree to any teacher.

According to the explanatory note provided by the Department of Education, it will consult with a given school on any potential transfer, but the agreement of the patron of the school will no longer be required.

The legislation has clear implication for Catholic schools, but schools run by the minority Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities are likely to be affected to an even greater extent.

If the legislation is adopted by the Oireachtas, schools run by the minority faith communities would be powerless to ensure that teachers transferred to their schools are sympathetic to the ethos.

A senior Church source told the The Irish Catholic that “there is a great deal of unanimity” among the Churches and faith communities on the issue.

“We are obviously concerned from the point of view of Catholic schools,” the source said, “but the feedback we are getting from the other faith schools is that they would feel even more vulnerable since they find it hard to find teachers that are au fait with their ethos in the first place.”

It is understood the faith school communities are concerned that if the legislation proceeds it may well undermine the current exemptions from equality legislation that allow the schools to defend their ethos.