A positive discrimination order to protect Protestant teacher-training places was accepted by all sides in the Dail yesterday.
The order will reserve all 32 places in the first year of the Bachelor of Education course in the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines, Dublin.
It was passed under section 12 of the Employment Equality Act "to ensure that the rights and interests of the college, schools with a Protestant ethos and the students in those schools are provided for", according to the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea.
Section 12 of the Act prohibits discrimination in vocational training with two exceptions - ensuring the availability of nurses and primary teachers for hospitals and schools which are denominational in character and to maintain the institutions' religious ethos.
He said reserving the 32 places "appears reasonable in order to ensure that Protestant schools have available to them a sufficient number of teachers who share their value system and religious beliefs". Mr O'Dea said a Protestant school survey last year showed that 55 per cent of schools had "considerable difficulty" in securing teachers for substitute teaching.
Fine Gael's outgoing education spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said the Protestant education tradition "is a very valued part of the Irish education tradition and it is important that the State would make every effort to support its continuance".
