Political parties reply to Atheist Ireland election questions

Author Atheist Ireland Published 28/11/2024 Comments 0

Atheist Ireland asked each of the political parties ten questions on secular policies.

Based on their responses and party manifestos, the four most secular parties (in order of agreement with most of our questions) are People Before Profit/Solidarity, Social Democrats, Green Party, and Labour Party.

If separation of church and state is important to you, we publish here the questions, the responses, and other information, to help you to decide which parties to vote for. In each case, we list the parties in alphabetical order.

General Comments

Green Party: We are happy to agree to the general approach of your questions – the Green Party supports a secular Ireland free from interference of religion in public life. A huge amount of progress has been made to achieve this and we support common sense further action to build on that and ensure the religious freedoms (and freedom from religion, if so desired) of all.

Fine Gael: Thank you. I will forward to our policy section to answer your queries.

Labour Party: Thank you for the email, I am copying in our political director and we can send on a more detailed response – but as you know Labour has a strong track record on campaigning for a more pluralist and secular Ireland. We recently published our education policy which sets out a commitment to a divestment programme for education which would see a significant and radical change to our current system, dominated as it is by religious patronage.

People Before Profit/Solidarity: We have raised and called for many of the asks you raise below, in the Dáil, including secular education and healthcare, objective sex education, addressing discrimination, and Deputy Gino Kenny has sensitively led the much-needed debate on assisted dying. We would certainly align ourselves with Atheist Ireland on the issues and asks you’ve identified below, and if re-elected, will continue to work on the removal of religious influence on state issues.

Social Democrats: I can confirm the Social Democrats will support each of those 10 policy measures if part of the next government.

[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

1. One Oath For All

Will you support amending the Constitution to enable the President, Judges, and members of the Council of State (which includes Taoiseach and Tanaiste) to swear an oath of loyalty to the state and the Constitution, that has no references to either religious or nonreligious beliefs?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: We support the separation of church and state, and agree that the current oath system is anachronistic.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

2. Secular Education

Will you support amending relevant laws to ensure that publicly-funded schools cannot discriminate on the ground of religion against students in access, and against teachers in employment, and by privileging one religion when appointing publicly-funded chaplains?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: We support a secular education system that ensures that all have access to education and that public money is not used to promote one belief system over another. We realise also there can be a basis for some communities to wish to organise education for their children and that the state should not necessarily act to impinge such freedoms.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

3. Alternative Classes to Religion

Parents and students have the right, under the Constitution and Education Act, to attend any publicly-funded school without attending religious teaching. Will you support their right to do this without discrimination, and that they be given an alternative timetabled subject?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: We support such efforts, while recognising the resource constraints placed on schools.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

4. Data Protection in Schools

Will you support the right of parents and students, under the data protection law, to not have to reveal their religious or philosophical convictions, directly or indirectly, when exercising their right to not attend religious teaching or worship in publicly-funded schools?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: We support these asks and the general right to privacy.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

5. Objective Sex Education

Will you support amending the Education Act to ensure that students, in all publicly-funded schools, can exercise their right under the European Social Charter to objective sex education that is delivered objectively and not through a religious ethos?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: Yes, and we believe that the revised SPHE curriculum can deliver on this.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

6. Secular Healthcare

Will you support a publicly-funded healthcare system where decisions are based on human rights and the medical needs of patients, and not on religious ethics, in particular with regard to operation of the new National Maternity Hospital?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: Yes, we believe this is guaranteed under current agreements and will continue to monitor to ensure this remains the case.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

7. Assisted Dying

Will you support the right of seriously ill people to get the best medical resources if they want to stay alive for as long as they can, and the right of terminally or seriously ill people to have the right to die peacefully when they choose if they want to?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: The Green Party supports the recent recommendations from the Special Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying and would like to see this issue tackled with careful consideration in the next Oireachtas.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

8. Solemnising of Marriages

Will you support amending the Civil Registration Act, so that bodies that can nominate solemnisers for marriages are treated equally under the law, instead of having different legal conditions for religious and secular bodies, and for different secular bodies?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: This is something we support in principle and will look into in further detail if elected to the next Dáil.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

9. Prejudice-Motivated Crime

Will you support tackling prejudice against groups through education, and tackling prejudice-motivated crime through the law, while protecting the right to freedom of expression, including about religion, based on human rights principles and standards?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: Yes we support such measures.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

10. Political Funding and Spending

Will you support political spending not political funding as the trigger for regulating campaign finance, with religious and secular bodies having to comply on the same basis, and protect the democratic process from online disinformation and the undue influence of wealthy donors?

Fine Gael: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
Green Party: This is a very interesting approach and one that we will consider further. We support greater regulation of online advertising designed to influence the political process.
Labour Party: Follow-up response did not arrive in time.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Yes.
Social Democrats: Yes.
[Other parties did not respond in time to include]

Relevant Extracts from Manifestos

Aontú

Aontú believes in a pluralist education system in Ireland. Parents should be able to choose the ethos, within reason, within which their children receive education. Education should be science based. It should be fact based. It should be age appropriate. It should not be based upon ideology or the latest intellectual fashion. Aontú opposes all forms of discrimination, and we oppose all incitement to violence. We will oppose Hate Speech Laws which would land people in jail for having the wrong opinion.

Fianna Fáil

The Fianna Fáil manifesto has nothing specific about secular issues.

Fine Gael

The Fine Gael Manifesto has nothing specific about secular issues.

Green Party

The policy section on the Green Party website says they propose to introduce legislation which allows for assisted dying in Ireland.

Independent Ireland

The party will oppose any hate speech legislation.

Labour Party

Labour will establish a Joint Committee on Constitutional Change to address a further range of issues, and consider proposed wording for amendments on… the place of faith in the Constitution including the Preamble and religious oaths for office holders.

Labour will hold a new National Convention on Education, inclusive of young people and children, stakeholders, and an assembly of citizens to plan for a modern, secular, and equality-based model of education. Our objective is to secure a State run school system with religious instruction separated from the school day and the Convention must assess the constitutional underpinning of education. Labour will implement an ambitious programme of patronage divestment to multi-denominational patronage bodies like Educate Together and Education and Training Boards (ETBs) to provide more parental choice and recognise the growing diversity of our population.

Labour will develop a legislative framework for assisted dying in restricted circumstances and with significant safeguards in line with the recommendations of the Joint Committee report.

Labour will legislate for incitement or hate speech while protecting freedom of expression. We will reform the 1989 Act, refine the recently passed Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act and launch a public awareness campaign on the nature and impact of hate crimes.

People Before Profit / Solidarity

We will accelerate the removal of the Catholic Church from control of our education system. In 2023 88% of primary school had a Catholic ethos. A fall of only 2% since 2013. There is a lack of political will to remove church control from our schools despite the evidence of neglect and abuse in church controlled schools.

The state has ignored the abuse of many inflicted by the Catholic Church on those who were entrusted to its care. Despite the many revelations of abuse the state has failed to remove Church control of care services or forced the Church to pay the compensation it agreed to pay… We will establish a fully publicly owned and funded National Childcare Service to provide free childcare for all.

The Solidarity manifesto calls for full Separation of Church and State and solidarity with all survivors of church and state abuse. This includes:

Secular, public education – no more Catholic church influence in public schools.

Full public tribunal into all schools on child abuse – no more whitewashing, no more piecemeal reports

Amend current redress scheme to include all adoptees and survivors

Lands and assets of the religious organisations amounting to billions should be seized by the state to financially compensate victims and survivors and to fund any further investigations

The records of implicated orders should be seized for criminal investigations

Schools run by these religious orders should be taken over by the state

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin would not introduce hate speech laws and we would repeal the government’s Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act because we believe that freedom of speech is a core component of democracy and that governments should not be allowed to censor the public in their own partisan interests.

Social Democrats

Governments should seek to ensure that state institutions are not biased towards any particular religion or belief group; that differences of belief or philosophy are fully and equitably respected in policy and accommodated in practice by public authorities; and that the Constitution, laws and practices of the State, including Government policy, reflect this approach.

Ireland is becoming a much more diverse society: ethnically; culturally; and in relation to religious and philosophical beliefs. This further emphasises the need for the State to respect diversity in its Constitution, its laws and its practices.

Public policy should be formed by applying reasoned analysis, and not religious faith or morality, to evidence. Government should be secular, and the State should be strictly neutral in matters of religion and its absence, favouring none and discriminating against none. Membership of a religion (or otherwise) should not be a basis for appointing a person to any state position.

And yet while Ireland has made progress in removing religious influence from our laws and policies, the UN Human Rights Committee has noted concern at the slow pace of progress in amending the Constitutional provision that obliges individuals wishing to take on senior public office positions such as President, membership of the Council of State, and membership of the judiciary, to take religious oaths.

Clearly, we have a long way to go. Only a truly secular state can guarantee freedom of religion for those who wish to practice it (as no religion is favoured) and freedom from religion for those who do not. In Government, the Social Democrats will:

Establish a Citizens’ Assembly to make recommendations on the future of the education system, including how it might better reflect and serve a more modern, inclusive and diverse Ireland.

Aim to remove ‘faith formation’ from the school day, with it to be provided as an afterschool option, and use the time for a new ethical education programme as part of SPHE, along with enhanced time for other subjects.

Rigorously follow-through on school divestment as per recommendations from the Forum on Pluralism and Patronage.

Amend the Employment Equality Act so teachers cannot face religious discrimination.

Ensure children have relationship and sexuality education that is informed by best practice in science and healthcare, with a standardised curriculum across all publicly funded schools.

Support legislation to introduce Assisted Dying on a limited basis in Ireland.

Ensure that no further state-funded and -built institutions are simply handed over to religiousorganisations, as has been the case with the National Maternity Hospital.

Seek to amend legislation that unduly privileges religious groups or organisations over their secular equivalents, including in the area of rights on social and political campaigning.

Finally, on the website whichcandidate.ie, one of the questions is: Religious instruction should only take place outside school hours in Irish primary schools. Agree or disagree?

Aontú: Disagree. Education should be based on science and fact. Ethos is also important to many families. Ethos is the value framework through which factual information should be communicated to children. Politicians should not be allowed to force their ethos on families with a uniform education system.
Fianna Fáil: Disagree. Under Article 44 of the Constitution, parents have a right to have their children opt out of religious instruction classes. This right applies in all schools, regardless of the denomination or ethos of the school.
Fine Gael: Disagree. Parents are the primary educators of their children and can enrol their children in a school with an ethos of their choice. Insofar as possible, arrangements should be made to teach religion without excluding any children, e.g. before the start or at the end of the school day.
Green Party: We want to amend legislation to require schools to ask parents to opt-in to religious instruction, ensuring that families do not feel pressured to opt-out.
Independent Ireland: Disagree. Parents are the primary educators of their children and can enrol their children in a school with an ethos of their choice. Insofar as possible, arrangements should be made to teach religion without excluding any children, e.g. before the start or at the end of the school day.
Labour Party: Agree. Religion belief is a personal decision and instruction should take place outside school hours. We would implement more ambitious patronage divestment to multi-denominational bodies like Educate Together and ETBs to provide more choice to parents and recognise our growing diversity.
People Before Profit/Solidarity: Agree. Our primary schools should not be run by nominees of the local bishop.
Sinn Féin: Neither agree nor disagree. As republicans we advocate the separation of church and state. Parental choice is critical when it comes to the education of children. The transfer of patronages must be sped up to ensure the option of secular schools is available to more children.
Social Democrats: Agree. The Irish education system, with more than 90% of schools run by one religious denomination, does not reflect the diversity of modern Irish society.