THE Catholic Hierarchy is seeking legal advice about an amendment made in anti discrimination legislation by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor.
The amended Section 37 (1) of the Employment Equality Bill is aimed at finding a balance between teachers' rights and the right of religious run schools to protect their ethos.
A Hierarchy spokesman on education, Dr Francis McKiernan, the Bishop of Kilmore, said yesterday that "we will be taking legal advice on the legislation". He added that "there will be no comment or reaction before we get that advice".
The Teachers Union of Ireland has rejected the amendment as unacceptable". The TUI's assistant general secretary, Mr Declan Glynn, said yesterday: "It is not satisfactory that teachers private lives could be assessed against arbitrary and widely varying concepts or understandings of religious ethos and form the basis for possible discrimination against them."
He said he recognised the Minister's efforts to meet concerns about Section 37 of the legislation. There was, however, "still very significant room for improvement" in the Bill.
The TUI "has always questioned the denominational character of schools which are almost exclusively funded by the State". The union believed "teachers should not he afforded any less protection against unjust discrimination or dismissal than any other workers. Teachers are justifiably concerned that they may become a special category of employee with less legislative protection".
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation said it would continue to oppose the new wording, while the president of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, Mr John Mulcahy, said the changes "remove the more blatant aspects of previous proposals".
The Minister published new wording for the section on Wednesday. Originally the legislation excepted religious run schools and hospitals from the anti discrimination legislation, if job discrimination was "essential for the maintenance of their ethos" or was "reasonable to avoid offending the religious sensitivities" of their members or clients. This last clause has now been deleted.
