Yesterday, the Dáil made an historic move when the Lower House passed a bill which will make it illegal to discriminatie against LGBT teachers in Irish schools and hospitals under religious run schools

The bill has already passed the Senate and will now go to the president for signing.

With most of Irish schools under Catholic patronage, LGBT staff were at risk of 'legal' discrimination in line with the previous Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which allowed schools and hospitals to ‘take action’ in order to prevent employees from ‘undermining the religious ethos of the institution.’

With this new legislation ( The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 ), public service workers are now protected against discrimination for their sexual orientation, marital status or gender identity.

The Gay & Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), welcomed the news and thanked the ‘Ministers Aodhan O'Riordan, Frances Fitzgerald and Jan O'Sullivan and the officials at the Department of Justice for their great achievement in bringing this Bill to fruition.’

According to GLEN press release, the bill will remove the ‘chill factor’ for LGBT employees of religious run institutions who had to remain silent about their identity: Irwin Godwin, director of education policy at GLEN said:

“The Bill passed tonight will go a long way towards thawing the threat hanging over LGBT and other employees. GLEN affirms the principle that every employee should enjoy equal protections in their workplace and in their recruitment and promotion prospects. This Bill removes a major barrier to that principle for those working in publicly funded institutions. We also note where further progress remains to be made for privately funded religious-run institutions, for trans people and for those of no religion.”

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