Note: if you have not already done so, please also read our introductory page of key facts about your child’s right to not attend religious education classes.

Here are sample letters regarding not attending religion class and not attending Goodness Me Goodness You class. These are draft letters. You can pick and choose what you put into them. You do not have to use all the material. You can of course change the tone of the letter and just use anything that you feel is essential to your particular circumstances.

• You should address the letter to the principal.
• If you do not get a reply within two weeks send the letter to the Board of Management.
• If they do not reply you can contact the Office of the Ombudsman for Children, contact details are here.
• You can also contact the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission here.
• You can also make a complaint to the Department of Education as it is the Minister for Education who has a Constitutional duty to protect your rights under Article 41, 42.1 and Article 44.2.4.

Letter regarding Religion Class

Dear (Name of Principal)

I wish to exercise my Constitutional Right under Article 44.2.4 and 42.1 for my child to not attend Religious instruction classes or any religious services or celebrations. I have decided to provide education for my child in religious and moral affairs at home and am exercising my Constitutional rights under these Articles.

As the religion class, religious formation, and religious services are contrary to my conscience, I wish to ensure that (child’s name) does not attend any of these. Please confirm this in writing and please do not discuss this matter with my child.

Under GDPR requirements there is no need for the school to ask our religious affiliation, or whether we have any religious affiliation.  There is also a requirement not to put us in a position where we would have to reveal our convictions in order to ensure our child does not attend religion classes.

Please let us know the supervision arrangements for my child outside the religion class.

Article 44.2.4 states that:

“Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.”

Article 42.1 states that:

“The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.”

Section 30 – 2 (e) of the Education Act 1998 states:

“Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister – shall not require any student to attend instruction in any subject which is contrary to the conscience of the parent of the student or, in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student.”

In addition Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that:-

“State Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

Rule 69 – 2(a) of the Rules for National schools states that:

“No pupil shall receive, or be present at, any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove”

Section 62(7)(n) of the Education (Admissions) to Schools Act 2018) requires schools, in their admission policies:, to

(i) put in place arrangements for students wishing to not attend religious instruction,
(ii) to ensure that those arrangements do not result in a reduction of the school day, and
(iii) to ensure that such arrangements are documented.

Section 7 of the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act, 1878, states:

“The Board shall not make any payment to the managers of any school unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Board that no pupil attending such school is permitted to remain in attendance during the time of any religious instruction which the parents or guardians of such pupil shall not have sanctioned, and that the time for giving such religious instruction is so fixed that no pupil not remaining in attendance is excluded directly or indirectly from the advantages of the secular education given in the school.”

In the Burke v Minister for Education case at the Supreme Court in 2022 the court found that:

“It is, in any event, part of the right and duty of parents to provide (and therefore the right of their children to receive) education under Article 42.1, which right the State has guaranteed to respect. The Irish text of Article 42.1 provides an important flavour in this regard:- “… ráthaíonn [An Stát] gan cur isteach ar cheart doshannta ná ar dhualgas doshannta tuistí chun oideachas … a chur ar fáil dá gclainn” which conveys the sense that the State cannot interfere with (cur isteach ar) the right of parents subject to the Constitution to provide education under Article 42.1, a right which Article 42.2 contemplates may take place at home.”

Yours faithfully,

Letter regarding Goodness Me Goodness You class

Dear (Name of Principal)

I wish to exercise my Constitutional Right under Article 44.2.4 and 42.1 for my child to not attend Goodness Me Goodness You classes or any religious services or celebrations. I have decided to provide education for my child in religious and moral affairs at home and am exercising my Constitutional rights under these Articles.

As the Goodness Me Goodness You class, religious formation, and religious services are contrary to my conscience, I wish to ensure that (child’s name) does not attend any of these. Please confirm this in writing and please do not discuss this matter with my child.

Under GDPR requirements there is no need for the school to ask our religious affiliation, or whether we have any religious affiliation.  There is also a requirement not to put us in a position where we would have to reveal our convictions in order to ensure our child does not attend religion classes.

Please let us know the supervision arrangements for my child outside the Goodness Me Goodness You class.

Article 44.2.4 states that:

“Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.”

Article 42.1 states that:

“The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.”

Section 30 – 2 (e) of the Education Act 1998 states:

“Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister – shall not require any student to attend instruction in any subject which is contrary to the conscience of the parent of the student or, in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student.”

In addition Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that:-

“State Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

Rule 69 – 2(a) of the Rules for National schools states that:

“No pupil shall receive, or be present at, any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove”

Section 62(7)(n) of the Education (Admissions) to Schools Act 2018) requires schools, in their admission policies:, to

(i) put in place arrangements for students wishing to not attend religious instruction,
(ii) to ensure that those arrangements do not result in a reduction of the school day, and
(iii) to ensure that such arrangements are documented.

Section 7 of the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act, 1878, states:

“The Board shall not make any payment to the managers of any school unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Board that no pupil attending such school is permitted to remain in attendance during the time of any religious instruction which the parents or guardians of such pupil shall not have sanctioned, and that the time for giving such religious instruction is so fixed that no pupil not remaining in attendance is excluded directly or indirectly from the advantages of the secular education given in the school.”

In the Burke v Minister for Education case at the Supreme Court in 2022 the court found that:

“It is, in any event, part of the right and duty of parents to provide (and therefore the right of their children to receive) education under Article 42.1, which right the State has guaranteed to respect. The Irish text of Article 42.1 provides an important flavour in this regard:- “… ráthaíonn [An Stát] gan cur isteach ar cheart doshannta ná ar dhualgas doshannta tuistí chun oideachas … a chur ar fáil dá gclainn” which conveys the sense that the State cannot interfere with (cur isteach ar) the right of parents subject to the Constitution to provide education under Article 42.1, a right which Article 42.2 contemplates may take place at home.”

Yours faithfully,