Humanists protest at practices in education

The Irish Humanists Association has written to all Government ministers and TDs requesting that "current discriminatory practices in State-funded education and medical institutions" be removed.

Writing in connection with the Equality Bill, 2004, currently before the Dáil, the association's chairman, Mr Billy Hutchinson, called for amendments to the Employment Equality Act, 1998, and the Equal Status Act, 2000, in line with EU directives.

He pointed out that provisions in the 1998 Act allowed "such institutions to employ people only of a particular religion, and permits dismissal of employees for religious reasons", while the 2000 Act "permits primary and post-primary schools, whose objective is to promote certain religious values, to refuse to admit students not of that denomination". Under current legislation, he said, the State was "denying the rights of the many people working in and availing of these services; rights enjoyed by others outside of these sectors. While privately funded institutions have certain rights to control their ethos, we do not believe that the State should actively support these practices with taxpayers' money.

"State services should never be restricted to support the views of any one sector in society, a practice which has constitutional implications, runs counter to numerous international legal instruments to which Ireland is a signatory, and indefensible in the multicultural and diverse nature of modern Ireland, recently highlighted again in the latest census figures."

Mr Hutchinson said the association believed "this new Bill also provides the Government with an excellent opportunity to remove current discriminatory practices in State-funded education and medical institutions, which were enshrined in both Acts".