Minister for Education Richard Bruton has confirmed that his department is investigating claims that two applicants for Deputy Principalships in Catholic secondary schools had their interview scores downgraded because one had had a baby outside of marriage and the other, a man, was a Protestant.
According to a story published in the Irish Mail on Sunday, in the first case a nun who was the principal of the school in question intervened to deny the woman the job because her "lifestyle did not reflect the standards of the school and would send out the wrong message to the young female students".
In the second case, a man was allegedly blocked from the promotion because a nun sitting on that interview board claimed the fact that he was a Protestant would "send out the wrong message".
Mr Bruton confirmed this morning that his department had received a complaint and that it is investigating both cases.
He said it was absolutely clear that "we will not tolerate discrimination of any sort within our education system". Mr Bruton said "we have laws and procedures to protect that".
However he went on to accept that laws did in fact allow Catholic schools to discriminate against teachers applying for jobs.
A section in the Employment Equality Act states that religious-run schools "shall not be taken to discriminate against a person" if it gives more favourable treatment to another applicant "where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution".
The act goes on to set out detailed grounds and some restrictions for this.
When questioned about this legislation, Mr Bruton accepted that if a school could prove that its ethos would be damaged and it had no alternative "they could seek to establish that this was necessary to protect the ethos of the school". He said he believed that that was "a very high bar".
Mr Bruton said his department was re-examining some laws, particularly in relation to school pupil admission policies, and he said there may be "potential for change" there.
