The Student and Parent Charter Bill must protect the right to not attend religious instruction
Atheist Ireland has sent the following Letter and Briefing Document for TDs and Senators regarding the Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019 and the Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction in publicly-funded schools Dear TD/Senator, The Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019 is making its way through ...
Education minister repeats pledge to change law if necessary to ensure inclusive sex education
In the Dail yesterday Donnchadh O’Laoghaire from Sinn Fein asked the Minister for Education about sex education in schools. The Catholic Bishops have introduced a course called Flourish to primary schools. Flourish is Catholic sex education, and the programme is to be taught alongside curriculum Relationship and Sexuality education. Here ...
Atheist Ireland asks Government to legislate for objective sex education
Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to all Government Ministers, TDs, and Senators. Please contact your own TD or Senator and ask them to support legislation for objective sex education. Dear Minister, TD, Senator, The Programme for Government commits to make legislative changes, if necessary, to ensure inclusive Relationship ...
Draft letter for parents to send to TDs seeking Statutory Guidelines on religion in schools
Here is a draft letter to send to your TDs seeking Statutory Guidelines on religion in schools. You can copy and paste the text and add in any information that you want about your own circumstances. The letter explains why this is topical at the moment. If you get a ...
Atheist Ireland calls for ethical secularism at meeting with Taoiseach and Government
Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland are today calling for an ethical secular State at a meeting of the Dialogue Process between the Taoiseach, the Government, Churches, and Non-confessional Bodies, in Dublin Castle. The meeting is addressing three themes: Effective Structured Dialogue, Inclusive and Diverse Communities, and Education. ...
Support the Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016
The Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016 will be debated in the Dail next Tuesday night between 8pm and 10pm. If passed this Bill would ensure that all children and their parents have access to an education system with equal respect and dignity and where their human rights are guaranteed. ...
Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan does not have a photographic memory of atheists
Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan said yesterday that she was particularly motivated to protect LGBT teachers from discrimination, when some LGBT teachers were afraid to have their photographs taken with the President for fear that action would be taken against them in their schools. But last February, at a meeting with ...
Labour Party forgets its pledge to protect atheist teachers
The Labour Party seems to have forgotten the pledge in the Programme for Government to protect non-faith and minority faith teachers along with publicly out LGBT teachers, despite the Labour Party claiming political ownership of that particular Government commitment. A Labour Party press release today is now selectively recasting it ...
Religious Discrimination in Primary & Secondary Schools – tell your TDs to end it now
In response to requests from a number of parents on what they can do when they encounter religious discrimination in primary & secondary schools we offer the following letter that you can use as a basis for your own letter to your local TDs, Ministers, Senators, Euro MPs and others. Your ...
Ruairi Quinn refuses to implement UN Recommendations on the rights of the child.
Yesterday the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn published a draft Admission to Schools bill to regulate the admission of children to primary and post primary schools. While the proposed measures in the bill are to be welcomed the Minister has done nothing about removing religious discrimination in access to education. ...