Atheist Ireland calls for the abolition of social welfare grants for Holy Communion and Confirmation, which contravenes the Constitutional requirement that the State should not endow any religion, and we welcome today’s announcement to reduce this payment as a positive step to a secular Ireland where the state does not discriminate or show favour to any particular religion.
It has emerged that since 1995 the Exceptional Needs Payment scheme has provided Social Welfare payments, in some cases over the value of €300, to provide for the Holy Communion and Confirmation of children and that last year €3.4million of tax payer’s money was spent on this. Ireland is a multi cultural society of all faiths and none, and the State should not provide for the rites of passage for any particular value system.
Atheist Ireland also welcomes the recent closure of Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See, and calls on the government to resist attempts to reverse that decision. Deputy Michael Noonan yesterday told the Fine Gael parliamentary party that he believed the Taoiseach would resolve this issue as he is a religious person. The theological beliefs of the Taoiseach should have no impact on the State’s diplomatic corps.
I Swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster
During the course of our lives, most of us will find ourselves in a situation where we would have to appear in court to give evidence or as a member of the jury. You will be approached by the clerk Bible-in-hand ready to take your oath. But if you’re not a Christian, you find yourself in a scenario that compels you to reveal your (non-)religious convictions to an employee of the State. Such a situation is wholly inappropriate for a citizen of a republic to find themselves in, where a State employee assumes by default that you are of a Christian denomination, and once you opt to make a secular affirmation, they leaf clumsily through a folder; past Judean, Islamic and otherwise oaths, until they finally find the relevant text which you must quote.
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