Minister of State for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said that he plans to amend Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act so that religious run organisations can’t discriminate against LGBT employees.

As currently stated in Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act, religious run workplaces such as many schools and hospitals can dismiss employees for “undermining their ethos” due to their sexual orientation. In the wake of the passing of the same-sex marriage referendum, the Minister has reiterated his intention to amend the problematic legislation.

He stated that any attempt to completely repeal the law would be unconstitutional. Instead, Ó Ríordáin intends to “raise the bar of the ‘undermining’ to be so high as to be irrelevant what somebody’s personal life would be”.

Speaking about the law on The Irish Times Politics Podcast, the Minister said: “Effectively you have a situation where an awful lot of teachers in primary and secondary schools would have voted Yes [in the marriage referendum] on Friday, would have gone out and celebrated over the weekend, possibly went back into their staff rooms on Monday morning and didn’t tell anybody what they were up to because they felt it would impact on their promotion prospects in the school.”

Listen to the entire podcast, in which the Minister clashes with Iona Institute member, John Murray.