A chara, – Patsy McGarry reports that Fr Eamonn Conway, a leading Catholic educator, has raised concerns about proposed amendments to Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act, telling an Iona Institute-sponsored event on denominational education that any changes need to be considered very carefully ('''Secularist elite' behind religious education plan, event hears", October 30th).
In its current wording Section 37.1 gives religious institutions, including denominational schools and hospitals, a vague and poorly defined right to discriminate against or take action against employees if it is felt they could in some way undermine the institutions’ ethos. This means that teachers in the vast majority of our schools can be discriminated against for being unmarried parents, divorced, cohabiting, being gay or a myriad of other personal circumstances that have no bearing on their professional lives. The proposed amendments to Section 37.1 which Fr Conway indicates concern about will seek to stop teachers, doctors, nurses and other employees of religious institutions from being discriminated against based on personal circumstances irrelevant to their professional duties.
Fr Conway is quoted as saying ,“We cannot simply accept the notion that is becoming prevalent that our personal and private lives as educators do not matter, only your expertise and competence.”
Fr Conway is entitled to his opinion. However I wonder what criteria parents of school-going children would value more when choosing a teacher for their child – expertise and competence or marital and relationship status? – Is mise,
NIALL CALLAN,
LGBT Teachers’ Group,
Irish National
Teachers’ Organisation,
Parnell Square, Dublin 1.