Atheist Ireland News
Minister for Education gives misleading Dail answer about the right to not attend religious instruction
 When protecting the right of children to not attend religious instruction in schools receiving public money, it is important to use the language in the Constitution.
In particular, the right to “not attend” must not be conflated with “opting out” or “not participating”. These ambiguous phrases have no basis in law, and in practice they allow schools to make children sit at the back of the religion class.
And the Department of Education has a duty to ensure that policy is turned into an administrative scheme that abides by the Constitution, and that, in any given situation, the result should be the same, whether it is administrator A or administrator B who has taken the decision.
However, on 25 May the Minister for Education Norma Foley gave a written reply in the Dail to Richard Bruton TD about this issue. Both the question and the answer use phrases that are different from the right expressed in Article 44.2.4 the Constitution, which is:
“Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not… 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 question uses the following phrase:
- “do not wish to participate in” instead of “not attend”
The Minister’s reply uses the following phrases:
- “have their children opt out” instead of “not attend”
- “the right to opt of religion classes” instead of “not attend”
To add to the confusion, the Minister also uses the phrase “without attending” when quoting from Section 30 of the Education Act. She also refers interchangeably to “religious instruction classes”, “religious instruction in the school”, and “religion classes.”
She also states that the manner in which any school ensures that the right to opt out of religion classes is upheld is a matter for the school concerned. This is contrary to the recent Supreme Court judgment in the Burke case, which states that:
“Policy… must be turned into an administrative scheme… Any such a scheme must abide by the Constitution. That is the over- arching jurisdiction under which every organ of the State must act.”
“It is of the essence of good administration that the principle must be fairly clear and precise so that, in any given situation, the result should be the same, whether it is administrator A or administrator B who has taken the decision.”
The right to not attend religious instruction is written into the Constitution. It is not a matter for each school concerned because it is the Condtitutional duty of the Minister and also a condition of state funding.
Here is the question from Richard Bruton TD
“To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has undertaken a review of the manner in which schools with religious patrons have delivered on the obligations to children for whom it has been indicated that they do not wish to participate in religious arrangements; and if she is considering issuing guidelines on the matter.”
Here is the response from the Minister for Education Norma Foley
“Under Article 44 of the Constitution and in accordance with Section 30 of the Education Act, 1998, parents have a right to have their children opt out of religious instruction classes if they so wish. It is expected that this right will be upheld by schools on foot of a parental request.
Under the provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, where schools provide religious instruction, they must clearly set out in their admission policies the school’s arrangements for students, where the parent or in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student, has requested that the student attend the school without attending religious instruction in the school.
The manner in which any school ensures that the right to opt out of religion classes is upheld is a matter for the school concerned. Each individual school must determine the particular arrangements which are most appropriate in its individual circumstances having regard to local issues such as available space, supervision requirements and how the school concerned organises classes etc.
The right of parents to have their child opt out of religion classes applies in all schools regardless of the denomination or ethos of the school concerned.”
Atheist Ireland continues to lobby to vindicate the Constitutional right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school. This includes highlighting when the Minister for Education uses language that is imprecise or contrary to Supreme Court judgments. Read online…
Other news
Atheist Ireland was mentioned in the US Department of State 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Ireland published on Thursday.
Calling concerned teachers
If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie
List of Atheist Ireland Submissions
Buy this book “Is My Family Odd About Gods?”
**Schools Special Offer**
Atheist Ireland are offering the book ‘Is my family odd about gods‘ free (excluding postage and packaging). This means that you can get this book for the total price of 10 euro. This offer is aimed at families with school going children, who would like to read this book. This offer is limited to one book per family unit and for postage within Ireland only. Read more…
Have you noticed that your school and your teachers may tell you one thing about religion, while some of your friends and family may have different ideas about god?
If you think that this is a little odd, then this book is for you. Buy this book here.
Lessons about Atheism
Atheist Ireland has published a set of free lesson plans about atheism for children aged 8 and up. We welcome feedback, which we will use to develop the lessons. You can download the lesson plans
 Be Good without Gods
Atheist Ireland ‘Good Without Gods’ Kiva team members have made loans of $36,675 to 1281 entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can join the team here. Before you chose a loan, make sure you do not support religious groups. You can check the loan partner’s social and secular rating here.
Notme.ie
Atheist Ireland’s ‘notme.ie‘ is a place where people can publicly renounce the religion of their childhood. Currently there are 1923 symbolic defections. Many share their reasons for making a public symbolic defection which you can read here.
Petition on Schools Equality PACT
Atheist Ireland currently runs one petition – The Schools Equality PACT. This seeks to reform religious discrimination in state-funded schools. Currently this stands at 4,111 Help us reach it’s target of 5000. Please sign and share this petition if you haven’t already done so. Thank you.
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