Removing religious oaths ‘an attack on pluralism’ says TD

Senators and TDs have queried whether the Government plans to replace swearing religious oaths with a ‘truth statement’, describing such plans as a “false concept of pluralism”.

A new bill currently being discussed proposes the use of a ‘truth statement’ in place of a religious oath or similar secular profession.

Senator Rónán Mullen asked the Minister for Justice whether this was the intention, saying it would facilitate “an attack on genuine pluralism”.

“I think that what is proposed here would tend to facilitate an attack on a genuine pluralism,” Sen Mullen said in the Seanad.

Embarrassing

Sen Mullen criticised the Law Society’s description of the current system as “embarrassing”, saying the comment illustrates an attitude “of official Ireland that anything with even the most cursory or inconsequential reference to religious faith should be abolished”.

In the Dáil, TD Peadar Tóibín said the bill threatened to establish a “new uniformity or orthodoxy”, saying it attacked “the pluralism we have today”.

“It would be a big mistake if the Government rowed back and attacked the pluralism we have today,” said Dep Tóibín, “by returning to a situation where…everybody must adhere to that new uniformity.”

The bill is still under assessment, having been examined in the Seanad and the Dáil, and has moved on to the committee stage.