Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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Question 431: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when will promised legislation, contained in the programme for Government, in respect of people of non-faith or minority backgrounds and publically identified lesbian gay bisexual transgender people who should not be deterred from training or taking up employment as teachers in the State, be brought forward to amend section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act which allows educational, medical and religious institutions to give more favourable treatment on the religion ground to an employee or a prospective employee over that person where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9420/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Employment equality legislation aims to strike a necessary and appropriate balance between the right to the free profession and practice of religion, recognised by the Constitution and the principle of equality and has done so by providing a qualified exception, of limited scope, in Section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act. Only where it is reasonable to do so and in order to maintain the religious ethos of a religious, educational or medical institution, may more favourable treatment be given under the law on the religion ground to employees or prospective employees. Similarly such institutions may take action, only where it is reasonable to do so, to prevent undermining of the institution's religious ethos by an employee or prospective employee. Application of this provision is, moreover, subject to review by a court or tribunal, such review being on an objective basis and having regard to the need to reconcile the various constitutional rights involved.

In the case of admissions to Colleges of Education, the position as regards the Church of Ireland College of Education, whose remit is to provide teachers for the Protestant primary school sector, is that it may reserve places on the Bachelor of Education for students from Protestant backgrounds. The other Colleges of Education accept students of all faiths, non faith or minority backgrounds and publicly identified lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on their teacher education programmes. Places on the Bachelor of Education programmes are allocated, in the main, through the CAO system and are merit based for the post graduate courses.

In the context of the programme commitment, when speaking recently to the annual congress of the Teachers Union of Ireland my colleague the Minister for Education and Skills referred to the position of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in relation to the school system in particular. Officials from my Department and the Department of Education and Skills will work together to determine what actions might be appropriate to move this issue forward. Pending conclusion of these discussions and any discussions the Minister for Education and Skills may wish to have with the education partners, I cannot anticipate what action the Government might approve in this area or whether this will involve amending legislation or other, non-legislative initiatives.