Atheism and secularism are philosophical convictions. They are protected by Article 9 of the European convention and Article 44 of the Irish Constitution. They come under the ‘belief’ category in ‘Religion and beliefs’. You can have a religious belief or a philosophical belief; they are both protected by human rights ...
The Department of Education, delegates their duty in relation to students not attending religious instruction to schools. The only excuse they give for this behaviour is that “a one size fits all solution does not suit all parents”. There are no regulations or statutory guidelines in place. The Catholic Church ...
We are constantly being told that there is not enough state aid to ensure that our children can attend any school in receipt of this aid and not attend religious instruction (Article 44.2.4 - Irish Constitution) This can only mean that the legislation providing state aid to schools does ‘affect ...
It is the duty of the Minister for Education, Norma Foley under Section 30-2(e) of the Education Act 1998 to ensure that students do not attend any subject that is against the conscience of their parents. The Minister for Education, Norma Foley delegates her duty in relation to students not ...
In February 2018 the School Governance Section of the Dept of Education issued Circular Letter 0013/2018. Circular Letters are ‘policy’; the purpose of the policy was to oblige ETBs to offer students, who are not taking religion, another subject. At the time we were told by the Department that the ...
The state pays out approx 10 million a year for mainly catholic chaplains in ETB schools (there are some COI chaplains). Chaplains are paid by the state to help Catholic parents with the religious formation of their children. We know this because there was a court case in 1998 about ...
The phrase ‘faith formation’ in schools is not in the Constitution. Whether you refer to faith formation classes, or faith formation in the general atmosphere of the school, there is simply no Article in our Constitution that uses the term ‘faith formation’. It is not possible to remove what is ...
The recent referendums have shown that words in the constitution matter. The Supreme Court has found that children have a Constitutional right to not attend any course in religious instruction. The Supreme Court also said that this right is based on the conscience of parents. Despite the fact that the ...
We have recently sent the following letter to the Oireachtas Education Committee. Letter from Atheist Ireland to Oireachtas Education Committee Can you please add this to the file of information from Atheist Ireland that the Committee is considering. "Section 62-7(n) of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. A ruling ...
According to the Supreme Court, the reason there is a right to home school in our Constitution is because of the right to freedom of conscience. Article 42.2 guarantees the right to home school, and this right was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Burke case in 2022. The ...
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