Atheist Ireland will be meeting with the Irish Government this year for a bilateral meeting under the process of structured dialogue between the State and churches, faith communities and philosophical and other non-confessional bodies.
We first requested this meeting last year, and we requested it again last month after the Irish Government met with the Roman Catholic Church under this process.
The Taoiseach has replied saying that he was not in a position to hold bilateral meetings last year due to pressure of other business, but that he hopes to make progress in this regard this year, notwithstanding continuing business pressures and Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union in the first six months of the year.
We don’t yet have a date for our meeting, but the Taoiseach will be asking officials to arrange a preliminary meeting with us to clarify an agenda.
The items that we wish to raise are:
- Our policy document, Five Steps to Civil Rights in a Secular Ireland, which covers the need for a secular Constitution, Parliament, Government, Education System and Health Care System.
- Some international cases relevant to our agenda on which we would like the Government to take action.
- The various submissions that we have made since our last meeting to Government and international monitoring bodies.
- How we should best discuss these issues with the Government on an ongoing basis in the context of policy formulation.
We’ll publish further details of the meeting as we get them.