The principal of a Co Meath Gaelscoil who was sacked after a row over religious instruction is to consider taking an action for unfair dismissal.
Mr Tomás Ó Dúlaing, who was dismissed from Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg in Dunboyne on Tuesday, said he had not yet decided if he would challenge his dismissal. If he did pursue a case with the Employment Appeals Tribunal, however, he would seek reinstatement rather than compensation, he told The Irish Times.
Mr Ó Dúlaing's union, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), yesterday called on the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, to establish a forum on interdenominational education "without delay". It said no more such schools should be established until the forum had completed its deliberations.
A spokeswoman for the Minister, however, said the row at Thulach na nÓg was a "single school issue" and neither Mr Dempsey nor his Department would be getting involved.
Mr Ó Dúlaing had been suspended without pay last April after publicly opposing a management directive that all religious teaching take place within school hours. The pupils' parents had earlier endorsed a policy whereby Catholic and Protestant children would receive most of their religious education together.
However, matters of doctrinal difference, such as communion, were to be handled outside school hours.
The school's patron, An Foras Pátrúnachta, rejected this and said the school must adhere to its policy of delivering the full religion programme as part of the normal curriculum.
Mr Ó Dúlaing and parents who supported him claimed this would lead to segregation as Protestant children would have to leave the classroom while Catholic pupils received instruction on matters of doctrine.
This interpretation was strongly disputed yesterday by Mr Séamus O'Sullivan, a member of the board of An Foras Pátrúnachta. "Placing children together is about celebrating the common ground between them, which is 95 per cent, but celebrating the difference as well.
"The word 'segregation' has been in the public domain since this story broke, but what we are striving towards is plurality - understanding similarities and differences."
Mr Ó Dúlaing said the policy previously agreed between parents and teachers involved celebrating difference.
"But when you're teaching values unique to one particular tradition and teaching them as truth, then you are not simply giving out information."
The INTO general secretary, Mr John Carr, said the Department of Education should not sanction a replacement for Mr Ó Dúlaing until the forum demanded by his union had completed its work.
The forum, he said, should be representative of all involved in interdenominational education including teachers, parents, management and churches, and should examine their rights and responsibilities. He said the Dunboyne situation had wider implications, and he accused the Department of Education of adopting an "ostrich-like approach" by treating it as a local issue.
The Department spokeswoman said disciplinary proceedings were matters between employers and employees and were entirely for resolution between the board of management, the principal and the parent body.
"They are not matters in which either the Minister of the Department can interfere."
As for the wider issue of the teaching of religion, it was a matter for the patron bodies of schools to decide on the ethos of individual schools.
"Neither the Minister nor the Department has any wish to interfere in such matters."
