Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is impossible to understand the horrors that took place in the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic, such as those which have only recently come to light with the mother and baby home scandals, without understanding the unique relationship that developed between the Irish State and the Catholic Church. In essence, a very weak capitalist State dominated by gombeens, small business owners, right-wing politicians and so on, desperately in search of security and legitimacy, leaned on the authority of the Catholic Church for that legitimacy and ceded considerable powers that should have been democratically controlled by a democratic state to a church institution. Does the Taoiseach agree that the theological writ of one church dictated horrific control mechanisms informed by a misogynistic and patriarchal outlook, of which women and girls were particularly the victims, involving an obsession with women's sexuality which fostered shame, fear and secrecy? This view was preached from the pulpit to Dáil Éireann and reflected in the media.

Does the Taoiseach agree that the State we have today is still marked considerably by that history and, in particular, that the outsourcing of critical social services like health and education to a religious institution ensured those services were never developed in the comprehensive, all-embracing way they should have been by a democratic state if it was truly democratic and representative of the people, and that the effect of that is evident to this day? In his discussions currently and in recent times with church leaders, has the Taoiseach spoken about the need for the complete separation of church and State? Has he spoken about the implications of such a separation in respect of the control of education, for example, and the need to develop and implement democratic structures for running education that involve parents, students, teachers, instructors and the community in general but do not rely on authoritarian patronage that is decided simply by two or three churches which are influential in this society? What measures is he taking to ensure this complete democratic separation of church and State is brought about in all the services that are crucial to our people, particularly in education?

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