Éire Aindiach

 

• Polasaithe agus feachtais Éire Aindiach a phlé ar an raidió nó ar an teilifís
• Cuidiú le doiciméid ghaeilge a scríobh
• Bualadh le polaiteoirí chun stocaireacht a dhéanamh

• Discussing our policies and campaigns on radio or tv
• Helping to write documents in Irish
• Meeting with politicians to lobby them

There is a right under Article 44.2.4 of the Irish Constitution for students to ‘not attend’ religious instruction in publicly funded schools if that is against the conscience of their parents. This is sometimes informally referred to as the right to ‘opt out’.
However, the explicit right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction is a far stronger right than the vague informal phrase ‘opt out’ which has no legal basis. ‘Not attending’ means physically leaving the classroom, not sitting at the back hearing everything that is being taught.
Referring to it as the right to ‘opt out’ is not a reflection of the Constitution or the Education Act 1998 as neither refer to the right to ‘opt out’. There is a Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction. The words ‘not attend’ were not written into the Constitution for nothing.
The framers of the Constitution made a conscious decision to ensure that students had a right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction under Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution. They also made ‘not attending’ religious instruction a condition of state funding.
This supports and is supported by Article 42 of the Constitution, which protects the inalienable right of parents in relation to the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.
As a result of this, the Education Act vindicates the right of parents for their children to ‘not attend’ any subject that is contrary to their conscience. For example some parents want their children to ‘not attend’ sex education or physical and social education.
Parents have this right under the Education Act for their child to ‘not attend’ any subject contrary to their conscience, and the Education Act includes this right because under our constitution it is parents who are the primary educators of their children (Article 42).
Again, this is an explicit right to ‘not attend’. It is not a vague informal right to ‘opt out’.
However, the Constitution treats ‘not attending’ religious instruction more strongly than other subjects, because it specifically names it and links to to State funding of schools.
This is the wording of Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution

Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.

The Irish version of the Constitution takes precedence over the English version. The words ‘Teagasc Creidimh’ under Article 44.2.4 translate directly into ‘religious teaching’. So ‘not attending’ religious instruction under Article 44.2.4 is simply not attending ‘religious teaching’.
The courts have already found that the right to not attend religious instruction under Article 44.2.4 must be read in the context of Article 42, the right of parents in relation to the religious and moral education of their children.
Atheist Ireland is campaigning for the Constitutional rights of students to ‘not attend’ religious instruction. As this right is a condition of state funding this means that students must be supervised outside the classroom or offered another subject.
It would help our campaign to vindicate this right if more people stopped using the vague phrase ‘opt out’ and started using the legally explicit phrase ‘not attend’. Read online…

This article covers:
Part 1 — Funding of Political Campaigns of Religious Bodies
Part 2 — EPF Report on International Funding of Religious Bodies
Part 3 — EPF Report on Agenda Europe Discussion Document
Part 4 — Protecting Democracy from Big Money Between Elections
Part 1 — Funding of Political Campaigns of Religious Bodies
Millions of euros in international funding, including from America and Russia, are spent within European countries to campaign politically against sexual and reproductive rights. Some of this money is used for political purposes in Ireland. The Irish SIPO laws should be strengthened to prevent this from happening here, and not weakened to allow an unregulated free-for-all of political donations between elections.
In Ireland, churches and religious charities can take unlimited donations, from Ireland or internationally, and use that money for political purposes. Secular NGOs can also take donations to use for political purposes, but we have to get a lot of small donations rather than a small number of large donations. This is good for democracy, because it helps to make politics a battle of ideas not a battle of bank accounts.
Atheist Ireland is lobbying to strengthen the SIPO laws so that churches and religious charities have to comply with these requirements. Unfortunately other groups, including ICCL and Amnesty, are lobbying to weaken the SIPO laws, to allow anybody to take any political donations in between elections. That would be bad for secularism, and bad for democracy, as most political influence is sought and granted between elections, not during election campaigns.
This article highlights two reports from the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. One is about the source and use of this international funding. The other is about a detailed discussion document circulated within the Agenda Europe network whose members advocate for laws against sodomy, divorce, gay propaganda, abortion, contraceptives, IVF, stem cell research, euthanasia, and anti-discrimination laws.
The Oireachtas All-Party Group on Sexual and Reproductive Rights is affiliated to the European Parliamentary Forum that produced these reports. The IFPA acts as its secretariat. The group is co-chaired by Senator Annie Hoey (Labour), Holly Cairns TD (Social Democrats), and Senator Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fáil). Senator Alice Mary Higgins sits on the Executive Committee of the European Parliamentary Forum.
Part 2 — EPF Report on International Funding of Religious Bodies
The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights recently published a report called Tip of the Iceberg, about the funding of conservative religious advocacy groups that oppose sexual and reproductive rights in Europe. The report concludes that in the ten years from 2009-2018, such groups received over $700 million, of which $270 million came from Russia and the United States.
The report says that American-based groups Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Acton Institute donate funds to European groups, with ADF spending €4.3 million in Europe during 2018 alone. One of the recipients is the Agenda Europe network of over a hundred members and groups in thirty countries that describe themselves as pro-life and pro-family.
The report says that Agenda Europe’s central organisers are Catholic activists and groups with direct links to the Vatican hierarchy, including Gudrun Kugler and Terrence McKeegan. In Ireland, Senator Ronan Mullen, Irish family and Life, and the Iona Institute have links to the Agenda Europe network. The Agenda Europe network holds private annual summits. In 2015 it held its summit in Ireland.
The report also says that the Milan-based Novae Terrae foundation gave €2.3 million of funds originating in Russia-Azerbaijan to various European groups between 2012-2015. It says these groups included Citizen Go in Madrid, Dignitas Humanae in Rome, Mum Dad & Kids in Brussels, and the Iona Institute in Ireland. It does not say how much each group received.
The report also refers to a transnational conservative Catholic body called Tradition, Family and Property which strongly opposes abortion and LGBT rights. Its main European political focus is in Poland. Its Irish affiliate, the Irish Society for Christian Civilisation, is a registered charity with the aim of advancing religion. It had income of €390,000 in 2019.
Part 3 — EPF Report on Agenda Europe Discussion Document
The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights also published a report in 2018 about a detailed policy discussion document circulated within the Agenda Europe network, titled Restoring the Natural Order: An Agenda for Europe.
The Internet Archive shows that large sections of this document were already published word-for-word in articles on the now-private Agenda Europe blog, on or before Feb 2015. That blog endorses the content of the discussion document. Read more…

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