THE exclusion of religious schools from new equality legislation amounts to an unfair intrusion into teachers private lives the special INTO conference in, Galway at the weekend has been told.
Speaker after speaker denounced the exemption of denominational schools from the Employment Equality Bill published earlier this year by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor.
The union is to urge the Government to drop the exemption. It is currently taking legal action on the options open to teachers to oppose the provision.
The INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, said it represented "a step back into the dark ages" which would provide teachers working in religious schools with almost no protection.
Mr Taylor's Bill allows religious run institutions to discriminate if this is "essential for the maintenance of the religious ethos of the institution" or is "reasonable in order to avoid offending the religious sensitivities of its members".
The Minister has argued that schools are not generally excluded from the legislation, but concedes that a "tightly drawn exemption" applies.
However, Mr O'Toole said: "Teachers feel this legislation allows employers to discriminate on the grounds of religion, marital status, family status, sexual orientation or race. The only grounds on which their employers cannot discriminate is on gender, age or disability.
Taken together with forthcoming education legislation, the Bill was bound to lead to a less pluralist, even sectarian, society, he said. "Is it acceptable that children might be refused admission to a school on the grounds of religion? Or that teachers might be refused the right to work, or take up a post in a school for the same reason?"
Although the conference was called to consider the INTO's response to last year's White Paper on Education, it was dominated by the issue of the religious "veto" on employment. The response is to be redrafted to incorporate opposition to the exemption clause.
One speaker, Mr Joe McDuff, said the Bill contained many welcome features, but it gave the churches legal backing to discriminate against teachers. "The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker and the legal eagles who drafted the legislation will benefit, but those workers most vulnerable to religious discrimination will be denied effective protection."
He accused the Government and the Minister for Education of "marching to the tune of the bishops" rather than "joining in the chorus of inalienable human rights" favoured internationally. He cited Ireland's "failure" to ratify both the UNESCO convention against discrimination in education and the International Labour Organisation's anti discrimination convention.
Rejecting the argument that the exemption was made necessary by guarantees contained in the Constitution on denominational education, he claimed the Government was using the "indefinable, intangible threads of ethos to spin a nebulous cloak of constitutional cover for discrimination against teachers".
Mr Sean O Casaide accused the INTO of "completely fudging" the issue of the ownership of school. "If we had proper national schools which were State owned, then these would be included in equality legislation."
Mr O Casaide said the churches had made their contribution to education in the past, but society had "moved on". "We should now be taking a stand. We've gone on long enough not wanting to offend people."
Mr Matthew Hume said the Bill gave teachers neither equality nor reform. It was a violation of their rights. "I do not accept that a teacher has to be a believer to teach in a denominational school. There is both a Muslim school and a Jewish school in my branch, and the standard of education is not in any way diminished by the fact that most of the teachers do not adhere to these religions.
Another speaker said that as a "practising atheist" he would not be entitled under the Bill to be employed in a religious run school. If the same legislation were enacted by Islamic fundamentalists, there would be "uproar" about it.
Other delegates compared the provision to the marriage ban which existed until 30 years ago and pointed out that the two main groups affected by the exemption - primary teachers and nurses - are largely female.
Mr John Brennan said the section of the White Paper on ethos could give legal support to "extraneous churches and doubtful religions" to come here and set up schools. There was even the danger that cults proscribed elsewhere could avail of the supports which would be provided.