EQUALITY:MINISTER FOR Education Ruairí Quinn was yesterday criticised for failing to give a commitment to repeal a section of the Employment Equality Act which allows religious-run schools to look preferentially at prospective employees on religious grounds, without being found to have discriminated.
Mr Quinn had told delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland annual congress he understood how gay and lesbian teachers might be concerned their sexuality could be held against them by managements of some schools because of the provisions of section 37(i) of the Employment Equality Act.
Mr Quinn said he believed the best approach to deal with the legislation was to seek to change attitudes. He said he was more than happy to have his department work with union officials and the relevant education partners to develop a code of practice to address the issue.
But yesterday, Dublin post primary schools delegate Feargha Ní Bhroin criticised Mr Quinn’s approach. She said introducing a code of practice was not sufficient to deal with the issue and the Government should instead repeal section 37(i) of the Act.
“This article of the legislation gives churches a derogation from the rest of the Act so that religious-run institutions are allowed discriminate in the recruitment, retention and promotion of staff in order to protect the particular religious ethos of the institution.
“Very many of our schools are run by the Catholic Church and this legislation effectively defines the teachers within them as promoters of the Catholic faith as opposed to public servants.
“This legislation protects the interest of the church at the expense of the rights of individual employees.”
Ms Ní Bhroin said while the legislation was bad for all teachers, it was particularly threatening to gay and lesbian teachers because of “the repeated and virulent condemnation of homosexuality by the Catholic Church”. She described Mr Quinn’s plan to introduce a code of practice as “unacceptable and offensive”.
“Any such document would only serve to set out an agreed contract in which it is considered acceptable to discriminate against some our member. It would legitimise this offensive discrimination,” said Ms Ní Bhroin, whose call for a repeal of the legislation was overwhelmingly backed by delegates.
* TUI national executive member Gerry Craughwell told the conference school managements and trade unions need to look at bringing in external professional experts to deal with cases of bullying in schools. He said that while the TUI had a protocol for dealing with bullying, it needed to be reviewed as it allowed for some level of local mediation involving either another staff member at the school or from the local VEC. This was not always the best course of action.
