A secular worldview that tries to push religion out of public life is at best naive and could even be tyrannous, former Taoiseach John Bruton said in a speech in the House of Lords last night.

His speech was similar to one delivered in November last year at an event hosted by The Iona Institute and Studies.

Mr Bruton told the Centre for Christian Democracy meeting in the House of Lords: “As long as religious belief exists, and there is every reason to believe it will always exist, the secularist notion that religion and politics should be kept entirely separate is entirely unrealistic.”

He continued: “As long as religious belief exists, it will contribute to the shared ethos of society. Thus it will influence politics.

“To attempt to organise society as if that was not true, is simply naive.”

He warned: “And naive beliefs, pursued relentlessly as they often are, lead either to tyranny or to the breakdown of the tolerance needed for democracy to function.”

He conceded that secularism had arisen as a reaction to the past “excessive and immoderate dominance” of religion.

However, he said that secularists should not become guilty of such immoderation themselves.

In a thinly veiled reference to the recent finding by the European Court of Human Rights that Italy was in breach of the Convention on Human Rights because crucifixes were displayed in State classrooms, he said: “For example, to seek to use the power of the State to remove every symbol of religious belief from the public space would be just as immoderate as past efforts to push one religion on people.”

In Ireland recently Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said that politicians should not allow religion to “cloud” their judgement.

Green party leader John Gormley told the Catholic bishops that they should “stick to the spiritual needs of their flock” and not “intrude” on “matters of State”.