David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Bill would also include the phrase "where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution" and I want to weaken those grounds of discrimination to "where it is reasonable to conclude that performing the job concerned objectively requires the employee to particular religion belief". It would be morally bad and intellectually disgraceful, as well as imposing an incorrect burden on teachers and pupils, for example, to have somebody who is a committed atheist trying to teach the New Testament if he or she does not believe it. Children are not fools and will smell that straight away.

I have heard a little about the rights of parents from the type of people who used to say that they heard much about rights but what about obligations? If parents are so worked up about religious ethos, why is it not being given to children in the home? That is where I got my religious ethos, and I sure as hell did not get it from any of my schools. Parents have rights and obligations, and if they want religion to be clear to children and loved and respected by them, there is an obligation on parents to facilitate that. I take my job as a godfather seriously and would take it much more seriously if I was a parent. I will seek to add a provision stating "but publicly and lawfully manifesting a religion or belief shall not be grounds for undermining the ethos of the institution". The point has been made and if a person turns up at a marriage equality demonstration and is photographed there, why should that person be subject to discrimination?

That is basically what I wanted to say as I do not want to be tedious. I look forward to Report Stage of this very important Bill. I commend Senator Bacik for introducing it. It is interesting that it was proposed by the Senator and I presume there is Labour Party support for it.