Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing forward this Bill. I was curious to see the Government's amendment to a Bill which concerns equal participation in schools. One could not think of something that could appear more obvious or less controversial than such a Bill, yet the Government has put down an amendment signalling its intent to block the further passage of this Bill. That is about as clear as it gets: this Government does not believe in equal participation in school, which makes me think Fine Gael should change its slogan to "The best small country in the world to discriminate against children" because that is the thrust of its amendment, or "The best small country in the world to brainwash children and shove a particular religious ethos down their throats regardless of whether they share that religious view or have no religious belief whatsoever". The Government proposes to retain a status quowhere it is alright in law to discriminate against particular groups of children. That is shameful. The Irishness of it is brilliantly summed up in the famous section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act 2000 which states:

An educational establishment does not discriminate [...] where the establishment is a school providing primary or post-primary education to students and the objective of the school is to provide education in an environment which promotes certain religious values, it admits persons of a particular religious denomination in preference to others or it refuses to admit as a student a person who is not of that denomination [...].

Let me cut that short: "An educational establishment does not discriminate [where] .... it admits persons of a particular religious denomination in preference to others or it refuses to admit as a student a person who is not of that denomination [...]". It does not discriminate if it does discriminate. That is what our law says. It is unbelievable. One could not make it up. This was a Fianna Fáil Bill.

The religious Taliban is not a distant exotic threat. It exists in this country. The law continues to give it the right to dominate our schools and it is represented faithfully into the 21st century by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. It really is unbelievable. That means for young people of minority faiths or no faith that they are isolated, excluded and made feel different. What a shameful thing to do to young people. It is unconscionable that the Government can stand over that continuing.

When I heard the school student, Megan, speak at our press conference about how this impacts on the quality of education, it shocked me and made me think of James Joyce and A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man, which I would recommend that the members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael read. It is clear they have never read it, chapter 3 in particular, where the priest in a retreat lectures the schoolchildren about the hell and damnation they will suffer if they give any expression to sexual appetite or if they refuse to submit to the authority of God, if they refuse to accept that the divine power is one to which they have to submit. Joyce brilliantly characterises the guilt he felt as a child and the fear and terror that he would suffer retribution if he had sexual feelings or refused to submit to the diktat of the religious authorities.

This has very serious implications. Its modern version is incredibly still going on, as Deputy Coppinger said, when 80% of schools are dominated by a particular religious ethos. They refuse to give proper sex education, which affects the health and safety of our children, because it does not suit their religious ethos. They refuse even to acknowledge the existence of LGBT people, or to educate our children about sexually-transmitted diseases and how to protect themselves. They make young people feel guilty about sexual feelings and so on. It is shameful that we allow that to persist but that is what the Government proposes to do. Deputy Coppinger's Bill proposes to remove that imperative in the law brought in by Deputy Micheál Martin. This is not a legacy issue or the residue of a dark distant past but Deputy Martin’s decision in 1998 to allow the characteristic spirit of the school to pervade the school day and that means in the vast majority of schools the Catholic or Christian ethos and all that goes with it.

Instead of encouraging young people to think for themselves and educate them properly about sexuality, reproductive health and so on, the school is allowed to deny them those things or shove a particular doctrine down their throats. It is absolutely scandalous that the Government would allow that to continue.

I will conclude by saying how angry I am that this is justified in the Government amendment by reference to the need to protect minority religions and faiths. Let me be absolutely clear. I would fight to the death for the right of somebody to profess and hold a religious belief and practice it. The reality is that by allowing the current situation to pertain, anybody who has a minority faith or is of no faith is being discriminated against. The Government is not upholding a diversity of religious views or the rights of those of no faith. Rather, it is actively allowing discrimination against minorities and those with no religious faith.

The Bill proposes that school facilities should be made available to those of particular religious beliefs or denominations after school hours. An education system that is entirely funded by the public in school buildings that are funded, built and maintained by the public should not allow a particular religious denomination to take advantage of and exploit those public facilities in order to shove a particular religious doctrine down the throats of children and exclude, isolate and deny rights to those who do not share those beliefs or who have different beliefs. I appeal to the Government to withdraw its quite disgraceful amendment and allow this simple Bill, which is about equality, pass to the next Stage and bring in the equality that the majority of the people in this country expect for our children.

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