Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The programme for Government states that people of non-faith or minority religious backgrounds and publicly identified LGBT people should not be deterred from training or taking up employment as teachers in the State. Accordingly, when Senator Power introduced a Bill to the Seanad, I was happy to see if it could form the basis for an all-party approach. I raised the matter with my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality who has responsibility for the equality legislation. From engagement with the Office of the Attorney General, it has emerged that there are complex legal issues. Our Departments will continue to engage with the Attorney General's office on this. The matter will also be referred to the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission which will come into existence later this year and it will engage on our proposals which were published early in the new year. I remain fully committed to reform in this area and when we return with legislative proposals, I hope we can make progress on a cross-party basis.

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