School religious discrimination may still be happening despite law

The ECRI said privately-funded schools promoting religious values can give preferential treatment to pupils of a particular religion. Picture: iStock

Religious discrimination in school admissions in Ireland might still be happening “in practice”, the Council of Europe’s anti-racism body has noted.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), has published today a report assessing Ireland’s progress when it comes to anti-discrimination and anti-racism policies.

In a report examining Ireland’s progress spanning five years, it noted a number of developments it deemed positive, such as the launch of a new national action plan against racism, a draft of a new national LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy, and new mechanisms for dealing with hate crime.

Call for hate speech law and education

However, it also called for new legislation to punish hate speech to be introduced “as a matter of priority” and recommended the improvement of the availability and quality of accommodation for people seeking or granted asylum.

The ECRI also found that human rights education for young people can vary significantly depending on schools and teachers, noting the need for “mandatory topics to be covered by all schools, such as combating racism and intolerance, including against Travellers and Roma, people of African descent, and LGBTI people.”

While the 2018 Education (Admissions to Schools) Act prohibits schools from using religion as a selection criterion in school admissions, publicly-funded schools promoting religious values can refuse to admit pupils if “it is considered essential to maintain the ethos of the school”.

Transfer of patronage 

Historically, most primary schools in Ireland have been run by the Catholic Church, with Catholic religion classes as part of the curriculum, the report notes.

Transferring the patronage of formerly religious schools has now been considered as a viable option for providing a non-religious alternative, and the education authorities also committed to the secularisation of schooling through the establishment of new multi-denominational schools.

Furthermore, the Department of Education has announced plans to survey parents nationally about schools’ patronage and ethos. In the view of ECRI, these are positive developments.

However, a 2024 visit to Ireland found that religious discrimination in school admissions might still be happening in practice, it added. 

Privately-funded primary and secondary schools promoting religious values can give preferential treatment to pupils of a particular religion, the ECRI said.

“The ethos of schools can also impact the delivery of relationship and sexuality education.”

The ECRI recommended a review of existing legislation to ensure the exemption for refusal of admission based on religion does not adversely impact access to education.

It also recommended that this review look at the definition of “ethos” and what is required in order to establish that a refusal was essential to maintain the ethos of the school, to ensure it does not constitute discrimination.

Concerns were also raised with the ECRI about the lack of diversity within the teaching profession and barriers faced by teachers from migrant, Traveller, and ethnic minority backgrounds.