Draft bill to change gay teacher laws

A plan to change the law that allows schools or other religious employers to fire gay teachers is to be published tomorrow and is expected to get government backing.

A group of Labour Party backbenchers will publish their draft bill tomorrow but the Irish Examiner understands it should have the support of the two ministers who have been looking at the issue for almost a year.

Fianna Fáil senator Averil Power published a bill last May to change Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act that allows religious employers an exemption from its discrimination rules if it fires or refuses to hire someone in order to uphold its ethos. The section has been held for many years by unions as an obstacle to gay teachers being open about their sexual orientation, although there are no known cases of schools using the exemption available to them to fire anyone.