I initially thought when labour started talking about opus dai and knights of columbanus members running the dept of education, it was a loony left conspiracy theory but i hear now in interviews with other politicians and ex dept ed people that its true. Are they the irish version of the freemasons? I know all civil servants are banned from joining political organisations, should they not be banned from these religious ones too.
No. Its against their human rights.
in what way? i'm not saying every civil servent should be an avowed artiest but when there clearly is a conflict of interest and there historically has been abuse of the system by people in these secret organisations, do you not think its a reasonable requirement. In fairness i think membership of all secret organisations from the freemasons, opus dai, fianna fail ( well do you know anyone who'd admit to been a member in public?Originally Posted by Mr.De-Regulation
should be barred fromt he public service.
Perhaps they should be obliged to name any organisation of which they are members.
I doubt it De.Reg. Banning you from a secret religious orginisation, if that is what they are, does not impinge on your right to practice your religion, one would have thought. However, banning is over the top. They should merely be required to disclose membership. That would solve all the problems.
There is already a thread on this topic.
http://www.politics.ie/current-affai...societies.html
Is 'Our Lady's Confraternity' okay? Should civil servants have to renounce their membership of the parish bingo club?
Should they be forced to state their sexual preference too? or how about how they vote? Seems like the next step from this sort of thing.
We'll be needing a breakdown of their dietary habits as well. Some food groups are down right subversive!
Politicians have to declare their "interests" of a financial nature, civil servants are not allowed by in active politics, etc etc. It's a matter of proportion. If you are in a catholic right wing lay movement, perhaps people should be aware of that if you have a role, as a public servant, in the education/health system etc.
No, a ban like that would be unenforceable. I mean, if the organisation is secret, who's going to know who's in it?
Much better would be to have effective oversight of the legality of all actions by persons who are public servants or otherwise wield public power. One way of achieving that would be to give the Ombudsman real powers and resources.
Now would be an appropriate time to do so, since the bicentenary of the creation of the Ombudsman institution is being celebrated this month.
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