Dublin Opinion

I should have mentioned in my post on Tuesday, about Catholic primary schools restricting the admission of non-Catholic pupils, that the real culprit in all of this is the exception written into the Equality Act 2000.

The following, taken from the Equality Authority site explain the exception.

“The Equal Status Act requires that schools do not discriminate across the nine grounds. Schools must mainstream and reasonably accommodate people with disabilities. Harassment and sexual harassment is prohibited in schools.

The Equal Status Act specifies four areas in which a school must not discriminate:

• the admission of a student, including the terms or conditions of the
admission of a student,
• the access of a student to a course, facility or benefit provided by the school,
• any other term or condition of participation in the school and
• the expulsion of a student or any other sanction.

Certain exemptions apply, and the most relevant are mentioned below.

The admission of a student

A school may not discriminate in relation to the admission of a student to the school, subject to exemptions set out below.

An exemption applies to the gender ground. Single-sex schools are allowed.

A second exemption concerns schools where the objective is to provide education in an environment that promotes certain religious values. A school that has this objective can admit a student of a particular religious denomination in preference to other students. Such a school can also refuse to admit a student who is not of that religion, provided it can prove that this refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school.

Issues that have arisen include refusal of access for Traveller children, refusal of access for students with disabilities to post-primary schools and restricting access to a small number of students of a particular religion in a very large school run by another religious denomination.” (All emphasis mine)

Now we hear (well, as reported on RTE yesterday) that certain Bishops are using their discretion and are allowing a descrete percentage of traveller and non-catholic students in to their schools.

Mary Hanafin says she sees no need to change the Equal Status Act. That would mean challenging the Church and (irony) seeing as they’re using their discretion, in some areas, why bother? (/irony).

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin was on Morning Ireland today saying that

…for historical reasons the Catholic Church is over-present in the management of schools as alternative models are not yet in place.

But the exceptions written into the fairly recent legislation, (1998 was the first time legislation was brought in for education), indicates that there is a reasonable desire for a status quo.

The exception in the Equal Status Act also contravenes a number of international conventions which Ireland has signed up to, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (1952), which came into force in Ireland in 2003.

First Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 2:

“No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.”

So, as Wednesday said in the comments, the situation is a farce and an ECHR case waiting to happen.

I’m not sure it will come to that as an ECHR case needs an advocate, and I suspect that this will blow over soon. That is, until next September.