Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution singles out religious instruction over the teaching of other school subjects, and makes it the responsibility of the Oireachtas, not the Executive. Article 44.2.4 makes vindicating the right to not attend religious instruction a condition of state aid to schools. When providing state aid to ...
The Department of Education, and school patron bodies, are defying the Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in publicly funded schools, as well as laws that protect that Constitutional right. In doing this, they use Circular Letters that have no statutory power and that unlawfully redefine Constitutional and statutory ...
Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to Helen McEntee TD, the new Minister for Education, about the commitment to non-denominational education in Programme for Government. Dear Minister McEntee, Congratulations on your new role and we wish you well. You are the ninth Minister for Education we have dealt with, ...
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 ...
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