Cathal Barry
A former government minister has criticised the State after the Diocese of Elphin confirmed it was forced to pull out of a local family life centre to guarantee future funding.
Dr Martin Mansergh, who also served as special adviser to successive Taoisigh said it “is sad when the State withdraws financial support for work that has been of public benefit for many years, unless it renounces its original mission or core values”.
“This seems to be what is happening in the case of Tusla and the Boyle Family Life Centre,” he said.
It was first reported in The Irish Catholic that Tusla – the State’s child and family agency – was pressurising the Boyle-based centre to abandon its Catholic ethos to receive further funding.
The diocese last week confirmed that it was reluctantly stepping back from the centre so that it will continue to receive vital taxpayer-funded support.
Ethos
Writing in this newspaper, Dr Mansergh said he believed “voluntary agencies engaged in caring, counselling and community welfare should be free to contribute on the basis of a religious ethos, where in the vast majority of cases from the client’s point of view, who is free to choose another service, the values involved will not in any way diminish the benefit to them”.
Dr Mansergh also warned that there are “signs of the emergence of a growing secular zeal” in Ireland, pointing to the debate around the scrapping of denominational education and calls to repeal the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment.
Accusations
“Once, there were occasionally accusations or suspicions that particular officials made partisan decisions, because they belonged to secret religious organisations. Today, there is a greater danger that decisions will sometimes be made on the basis of a conviction that there ought to be rigorous separation of Church and State,” he said.
“In other spheres, private sector participation is welcomed in relieving the burden on the State, without always enquiring too much into the ethos of the private partner,” he added.