| Summary: | This submission traces the scope of the religious
exemptions for religious organisation both under the Irish Employment Equality Acts
1998–2011 at national level and under the EU Framework Directive on Employment and
Occupation, Directive 2000/78/EC of November 2000, at EU level. It will be demonstrated
that the Irish religious exemptions are broader in scope than those at EU level and
therefore constitute a severe limitation on the equality rights of Irish citizens
falling within protected grounds of non-discrimination other than religion or belief
under the EU Employment Equality Directive. Special regard is had to the limitation of
the rights of Irish citizens falling within the protected ground of non-discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation. It is considered whether, by allowing overly broad
exemptions to subsist beyond the exigencies of a strict proportionality test, the Irish
State is in effect giving efficacy to the typified intolerance between religions
organisations and the LGBT community and in so doing, contributing to the perpetuation
of these intolerances in Irish society rather than their erosion.
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