MS EILEEN FLYNN, the former Wexford teacher sacked 15 years ago for having a baby with a separated man, has condemned the Government's proposal to exempt religious run schools from its anti discrimination legislation.
Speaking yesterday at a press conference in Dublin, Ms Flynn said the language about protecting the Catholic ethos of schools used in the Employment Equality Bill paralleled the language of the High Court judgment handed down in her case in March 1985.
The revised Bill, as agreed by the Dail on Wednesday, allows religious.run schools to take action against an employee where it is "reasonably necessary to prevent that employee from "undermining" its religious ethos.
Ms Flynn said the legislation would bring in a two tier system whereby workers in both the public and private sectors would enjoy "unprecedented protection" against discrimination, while those in the church run "caring professions" - teaching, nursing and childcare - would be vulnerable to the "ever present danger of bigotry and sectarianism".
A statement from Teachers for Pluralism in Education said the group wanted to "highlight the absurdity of a Bill claiming to protect all workers from religious discrimination which denies precisely those workers most vulnerable to such discrimination the same effective protection being granted to other employees".
The statement noted that "while the controversial religious veto on teacher appointments has been dropped from the Education Bill, it has now merely been conveniently relocated in the Employment Equality Bill".
If this legislation went through the Oireachtas, it would compound the difficulties already experienced by many teachers, particularly those in rural areas, "living in `irregular relationships' divorced teachers, lesbian and gay teachers, single mother teachers, and of course teachers whose religious or philosophical views differ sharply from that of their local manager".