Former Labour Party leader Joan Burton is to bring a Private Member's Bill in the Dáil seeking an amendment to the Equal Status Act to allow equal access to Catholic schools whether baptised or not.
Ms Burton’s move follows publication of a report by the children’s rights organisation Equate which said that there is no constitutional barrier to amending the Equal Status Act removing the baptism barrier, which at present allows schools to discriminate in favour of members of their own religion.
The former tánaiste told Newstalk Breakfast she will raise a private members’ motion next week to remove the section in the Equal Status Act which effectively would allow a school to discriminate on religious grounds.
“We’re not asking schools to abandon in any way their denominational character if they’re set up by a particular religious denomination. We’re simply asking that the school and the law will be changed so that local children who are not of that faith, or of any faith, can gain access to their local school.
“We have a situation because of pressure of places in schools. Some parents feel under pressure, where it’s not their conviction, to have their child baptised so their child can attend the local publicly funded primary schools.
“We want to ensure that every child is a welcomed child, particularly in their own area, subject to overall numbers. We believe that the legislation I am bringing forward on behalf of the Labour Party will allow us to do this. We wanted to do this in government.”
The Dublin West TD said her party had taken ‘a lot of legal advice’ and that she was not privy to any advice the Attorney General might have given the Government.
“When we were in government, we removed from the Equal Status Act the discrimination that potentially existed against gay teachers. Similarilly we’re going to remove the discrimination that might mean that a child could not get into their local school because they were not of the faith of the school even in publicly funded.”
She said that she believe new politics would work in this case. "I think Fianna Fáil has similar thoughts. No one is suggesting that the Catholic church is discriminating. But in areas where there is a high demand for spaces there have been cases were children have been left out from attending their local school. The purpose of our amendment bill is to change that situation."