Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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307. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if teachers can speak freely and openly on the influence of religion and religious indoctrination in the education system, given the threat of section 37(1)(b) of the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the fact that religious institutions run 95% of primary schools. [29039/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Schools and other educational institutions are required to comply with anti-discrimination and other employment legislation, such as the Employment Equality Act 1998.

Section 37 (1) of the Employment Equality Act, 1998, as amended, requires relevant employers in schools with a religious ethos to show that any favourable treatment of an employee or prospective employee is limited to the religion ground and action taken against a person is objectively justified by reference to that institution’s aim of protecting its religious ethos. This provision raises the threshold for discrimination so that schools are precluded from discrimination on any other equality grounds and that any action taken is reasonable and proportionate.

For historical reasons, most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local Bishop as patron, although this pattern is changing. At present, 89% of primary schools have a Catholic ethos. Approximately 5% have a multidenominational ethos.

The remaining approximately 6% of primary schools have a religious ethos other than Catholic, mainly Church of Ireland. It is recognised, including by the Catholic patrons, that more diverse provision is required to cater for our changing society.

The Schools Reconfiguration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multidenominational patrons in response to the wishes of school communities, aims to facilitate more availability of multidenominational schools across the country.

The Programme for Government reflects the Government’s objective of continuing to expand the plurality of schools to reflect the full breadth of society. It sets out that “students of all religions and none should have access to education, regardless of their belief system”.

The Programme for Government commitments in this area include:

• To achieve the target of at least 400 multidenominational primary schools by 2030, to improve parental choice;
• To expand and prioritise the transfer of viable schools to Community National Schools; and
• To work with communities to ensure the provision of clear, non-partisan information on the preparation for, and the consequences of, the divestment process and to respond to queries raised.

My goal remains to continue the work in establishing a strong reconfiguration process, that has the support of patrons and local communities, and which will enable us to continue to increase the number of multidenominational primary schools across the country.