Cork TD and equality group call for end to religion in schools

A Cork Labour TD and the Education Equality group have both called for the government to tackle the role of religion in education.

It comes as a survey of teachers finds that the majority of primary school teachers believe faith formation should not take place in the classroom, and CSO marriage data shows less than a third of couples had a religious ceremony last year.

Labour’s education spokesperson Eoghan Kenny, a TD for Cork North Central and former secondary school teacher, has said that the government is “nowhere near” achieving its target of divesting 400 schools by 2030.

A survey of Irish primary school teachers released by the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation (INTO) this week found that 57% believe faith formation should take place outside of schools.

Mr Kenny said: “The INTO survey is clear, the majority of national school teachers believe it’s time to take faith formation out of the classroom. As a nation, our objective should be to secure a State run school system where religious instruction takes place outside of the school teaching day.

“It is important to state, that while we believe that faith formation should take place outside schools, this won’t and shouldn’t affect the teaching of the subject of religion in all schools, inclusive of those of faith and those without.”

Mr Kenny explained: “As a secondary school religion teacher, I see the enormous value in an education in world religions, in philosophy and sociology as a means to understand and place students in the world.

“However, it is time that the school system catches up with where parents and families are at and take faith formation out of the school day. The subject of Religion is pivotal in the development and outlook of every child. I know that from experience in the classroom.

“We are in the height of confirmation and communion season right now. Receiving the sacraments is one of the few occasions that many people attend mass, yet we know that so much class time goes in those years to preparing for sacraments rather than focusing on core curriculum subjects.” It comes as latest CSO figures show that non-religious marriages far outnumbered Catholic marriages last year.

Catholic ceremonies accounted for 31.6% of marriages in 2024, down on 34.3% of marriages in 2023 and 40.5% in 2022. The equivalent figure in 1990 was 93%.

40.5% of couples chose a non-religious marriage ceremony in 2024, up on 40.3% in 2023, 35.5% in 2022 and 4% in 1990.

Education Equality have said that the these figures can be taken as a barometer of religious belief and practice, and are calling on the Government to compel schools to confine religious instruction and worship to a period outside core school hours.

The group’s communications officer David Graham said: “Non-religious marriages continue to outnumber Catholic marriages, and yet, nine out of 10 of our state-funded primary schools are still owned and run by the Catholic church, with their ethos permeating every aspect of the education they provide.”

He added that the results of the INTO survey “showed that the majority of teachers want change, with just 4% of respondents feeling that the responsibility for preparing children for the sacraments of communion and confirmation should lie with schools.

“These figures, along with CSO marriage and census data, should be enough for the Government to act on to fix the issue of forced indoctrination of children in the vast majority of our schools. Our current education system does not respect children’s and teachers’ human and constitutional rights to freedom of religion and belief.”