The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, last night threatened to block an EU directive on employment equality at a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg later today, saying that its current wording would threaten the ethos of denominational schools and hospitals in Ireland.
The directive, which outlaws discrimination in employment on a wide range of criteria, would not allow denominational institutions to discriminate in favour of employees of their own denomination except in very limited cases, Mr O'Donoghue said last night. A Buddhist school, for example, could discriminate in favour of Buddhists only when employing a religion teacher, he said.
Ireland's Employment Equality Act of 1998 allows greater latitude to schools to choose teachers of their own denomination, he said. While it did not automatically entitle denominational schools to discriminate on a denominational basis, the draft directive appeared to be less certain in terms of its assurance that the ethos of the institution would be preserved, Mr O'Donoghue told The Irish Times last night.
While Mr O'Donoghue's stance implies a threat to veto the proposal, which requires unanimity among the 15 EU member-states, in reality the matter is highly unlikely to come to such a showdown. The French presidency is expected to become involved in discussions with Mr O'Donoghue to see if the Irish concerns can be met. If agreement is not forthcoming among the 15, the usual practice is to postpone a vote until a compromise can be reached.
It is understood Mr O'Donoghue was in contact with church leaders and educational interests yesterday before deciding to take this stance.