David Norris (Independent)

I look forward to the debate that was called for yesterday. I have plenty of things to say on this and can mention many cases of bad planning supported by Official Ireland here.

I wish to raise an educational matter. I am concerned at widespread reports that four so-called Protestant schools are engaged in legal action against the Department of Education and Science. I know we cannot trespass into an area that is being examined by the courts as it would be improper, but we should have a debate on this. It is apparently the result of the closure of four schools, including Greendale Community School, which is where Roddy Doyle taught. I met some of the teachers from Greendale at a conference some months ago and I would be delighted to be taught by them. They were splendid people. The difficulty arises because teachers are being forced into schools without interviews. I would have thought it was reasonable to want to interview somebody to find out whether he or she had the right qualifications and was the right person for the job in question rather than a square peg in a round hole.

I heard a commentator state yesterday that this is all connected with the national pay agreement and that this would far supersede any question of ethos. The reason I raise the question is that there has been no response whatever from the Government side to repeated calls from people such as myself and Senator O'Toole to re-examine the matter of ethos and the use of this troublesome word to exempt the churches from the basic legislation of the land, the equality legislation. Apparently the Government feels it is appropriate to stuff 30 teachers into Protestant schools without interview, although they may be very good teachers, because there is a question about the wage agreement, and yet we cannot be allowed to reopen the question of the appropriateness of the exemption for the churches in that legislation. Churches that have been involved in serious abuse of children have retained the right to fire people like me simply because of the nature of their sexual orientation. That is intolerable in this country.

I also support Senator O'Toole on the matter of the Dublin Institute of Technology. I also have the letter from Senator Daly about the Irish research electronic library initiative. It is extraordinary that our seven leading universities should have access to this and the DIT, an institution of which we should be very proud, is kept out of it for some reason. There would be a saving because if the DIT had direct electronic access to this material, it would not need to buy all the journals.