Irish Constitution and education

The Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) establishes the branches or organs of government, it establishes the courts and sets out how those institutions should be run. It also describes the fundamental rights of every Irish citizen.

The Constitution contains 50 articles. Articles 40-44 provide for the fundamental rights of Irish citizens including the right to education.

You can read the full text of the Irish Constitution.

The Constitution and education

Article 42 of the Constitution of Ireland says:

"1: The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

2: Parents shall be free to provide this education in their homes or in private schools or in schools recognised or established by the State.

3.1°:The State shall not oblige parents in violation of their conscience and lawful preference to send their children to schools established by the State, or to any particular type of school designated by the State.

3.2°:The State shall, however, as guardian of the common good, require in view of actual conditions that the children receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social.

4:The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation."

The Family

Article 41 of the Irish Constitution says:

"1.1°: The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.

1.2°: The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State."

Religion

Article 44 of the Irish Constitution says:

2.2°: The State guarantees not to endow any religion.

2.3°: The State shall not impose any disabilities or make any discrimination on the ground of religious profession, belief or status.

2.4°: Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.

2.5°: Every religious denomination shall have the right to manage its own affairs, own, acquire and administer property, movable and immovable, and maintain institutions for religious or charitable purposes.

2.6°: The property of any religious denomination or any educational institution shall not be diverted save for necessary works of public utility and on payment of compensation.

Responsibility for education

Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution say that:

• The family is the main source of education for the child. Parents are entitled to provide education outside the school system if they wish.
• The State can not force parents to send their children to any school or any particular kind of school. Parents can choose the school they want to send their children to. There is no constitutional obligation on any school to accept individual children.
• The State may require that children receive a certain minimum education. This certain minimum has not yet been defined in legislation or in official policy.
• The State must provide for free primary education. It does not have to provide that education directly, but it can. In practice, there are some State schools but most primary schools are privately owned and largely state funded. See ownership of primary schools

Religion in schools

Article 44 of the Constitution says that:

• There cannot be discrimination between the different religious denominations, and
• Children have the right to attend state-aided schools without attending religious instruction.

Some time periods may be set aside for religious instruction and parents have a right to withdraw their child from this. However, in practice, the school ethos can also affect other parts of school life.

Minimum education

There is no definition of a "minimum education" in the Education (Welfare) Act 2000. It does say that the Minister can set a "prescribed minimum education". That minimum standard may be different for children of different ages and of different abilities - including physical, mental and emotional abilities.

The Sinnott case - free primary education

In 2001 in the Sinnott case, a Supreme Court decision limited the right to free primary education to the age of 18.

Equality in education

Educational establishments in Ireland are subject to the Equal Status Acts, whether they are publicly funded or not. The Acts require that schools and educational institutions do not discriminate across any of the nine grounds - gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. There are exemptions in relation to gender and religion. It is not discrimination if a single gender school (excluding universities) refuses to admit a student of another gender.

Educational establishments means preschools, primary schools, post-primary schools, an institution providing adult, continuing or further education, a university, third level or higher-level institution

You can find an information booklet about Schools and the Equal Status Acts (pdf) on the Department of Education website.