Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 23, line 11, after “school” to insert “not aided by the Department of Education and Skills”.

We addressed this issue in my amendments on Committee Stage. The Minister indicated that his aim with the Bill was to make incremental progress in secularising Irish education and removing barriers for access to education. Of course I welcome such efforts and I will be supporting this legislation in the final vote. However, I appeal to the Minister to again consider why we are taking half measures in this regard. Is it even fair to take an approach of secularisation when it comes to national schools with a Catholic ethos, yet not with other faith groups? Do State money and State institutions, be they educational or otherwise, have any role when it comes to promotion of religious faith?

The Green Party believes that State education should be precisely that: State-funded and run with an exclusive focus on the promotion of education and social development, and not the promotion of religious faith. Such promotion has its place in churches, community and faith groups as well as in homes and within families, but not within State institutions such as schools.

We disestablished our church in 1869, yet here we are 150 years later talking about preferential treatment in admissions on the basis of religious faith, a promotion of faith if ever there was one. I am fully in support of the principle of religious freedom, but as importance is the right to freedom from religion. That is why I have moved this amendment.

Amendment No. 20 relates to arrangements for children not taking part in religious classes. I did not get to speak to this point on Committee Stage. I intend to press this amendment because it is one that I have personal experience of as a mother of children who did not partake in religious instruction in school. They sat down the back of the class and were left out and left aside. It was not a particularly satisfactory arrangement. I imagine teachers themselves are seldom happy with such arrangements. Guidance from the Department in this regard would be useful. The amendment would require the Department to provide guidelines to schools on how they should put in place age-appropriate alternatives for those who do not wish to attend religious instruction during school hours.

As I have mentioned previously, I believe freedom from religion is an important part of religious freedom, but the current system is not adequate to ensure that students affected do not feel excluded or that their time is poorly used as they merely wait out the class. The amendment would ensure freedom from discrimination and protection of a child's right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion in school. As the Government acts to remove the baptism barrier in our national schools, it is only logical for the Department to set guidelines to ensure that all students are treated equally across schools when they opt out of religious classes.

Earlier this year, the Minister issued a circular to all education and training board schools requiring them to provide alternative subject choices for students who do not wish to partake in religion class in school. However, this measure only applies to education and training board schools, the logic being that they are multi-denominational.

I anticipate that the Minister will argue that he does not normally issue guidelines to schools on issues such as this, but that is belied by the fact that the Department has done so for education and training board schools. My amendment would thus make it compulsory to issue guidelines to deal with this question in all schools. Apart from giving schools certainty in coping with a shift to a more diverse population and an increasingly non-religious population, it would also ensure the right of students to not partake in these classes. It would ensure the children affected could spend the time productively and have their wishes respected.