Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

While this may be a constitutional issue which would require clarification, in terms of a person's ability to teach within our system I suspect that, as 96% of primary schools are religious, it would be a requirement that a teacher be able to teach the subject to which the Deputy refers given that it is part of the curriculum. I do not believe a case has arisen to date of a person in this particular circumstances. The issue is effectively untried and untested in that no one of a strong humanist mind has presented.

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