Vol. 409 No. 9
5 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach if he will invite official representatives of the Irish Islamic Community, which now numbers more than 5,000 people, as official religious participants at such State ceremonies and receptions at which other official representations of religious denominations are present, such as the National Commemoration Day on 14 July; and if he will make a statement of the matter.
Participation in these ceremonies is based on long-established custom and practice, any change in which would, in courtesy, involve consultation with the other parties involved. While the matter is kept under continual review, there are at present no proposals for change.
Let me say that any individual or representative who may wish to attend National Commemoration Day ceremonies would be warmly welcome.
Would the Taoiseach not agree that if the Constitution were being drafted today, as distinct from 1936, the Islamic community and the Islamic religion would be recognised and referred to in the same way as other denominations are referred to? Having regard to that, does the Taoiseach not think, in view of the fact that many Irish citizens now belong to that religious denomination, that the Islamic community are entitled to the same kind of official recognition enjoyed on such official occasions by other denominations that are perhaps smaller in number?
If the Constitution were being redrafted now perhaps it would not contain reference to any church. I should like to say that members of the Islamic community would be very warmly welcome at National Commemoration Day.
Would the Taoiseach not agree that this issue was raised on a separate occasion — that of the inauguration of the President — that the official National Commemoration Day accords a formal platform for representatives of different religious denominations recognised in the Republic, that the Islamic community now number more than 5,000 members, that they can no longer be ignored, and that they are as much entitled to official representation at such ceremonies as others whose numbers are much fewer?
I disagree with the Deputy when he suggests that National Commemoration Day is a platform. National Commemoration Day was brought forward for a very specific purpose. The Deputy will recall that it took a fair amount of discussion and co-operation among the parties in the House to decide on its format. However, efforts to have the day initiated were successful and the ceremony has been very well supported and widely appreciated by both the participants and the general public. Its success is one of the important improvements in the general approach to such matters in this country. There is no question of anybody being excluded. It is just that for the particular purpose of commemorating all Irish men and women who died in all wars the ceremony was constituted and the particular religious churches involved participate in it. By the very nature of the ceremony it is not exclusive in the way that the Deputy suggests. I would put the ceremony in a completely different category from that of the inauguration of the President, and different considerations would apply.
Do I take it that while representatives of the Methodist Church, the Unitarian Church, the Baptist Church, the Jewish community and the Church of Ireland are entitled to official invitations and representations on such occasions, a religious representative of the Islamic community is not so entitled and will never be invited to such an occasion? Is that the correct interpretation?
No, the Deputy need not take anything of that sort from my reply. It is a little invidious to start naming individual churches. Some of the churches named by the Deputy do not participate. It is a matter of religious leaders giving a blessing. It is not a question of conferring honours on anybody or anything of that kind. We are all aware of ceremonies of different kinds that take place throughout the country and at which the constitution of the religious group performing the ceremony varies from time to time and from locality to locality. National Commemoration Day was constituted in this way because of the events commemorated by the day. I do not see any exclusion or attitude of exclusion towards any particular religious body.
I think that the country has changed but the Taoiseach is not fully aware of that fact.
Apart from the specific question of the National Commemoration Day, would the Taoiseach not be willing to indicate that on State occasions where representatives of religious denominations are invited to participate in an official capacity that it would be reasonable to include an invitation to the religious representatives of the Islamic community? For my own part, in relation to the National Commemoration Day, I find it ironic that religious institutions bless the wars and then pray for the victims, but that is a separate issue.
That is a matter that can be considered from time to time. I would like to point out to the Deputy, however, that some religious groups who have been invited to different ceremonies have not accepted the invitation.
The questions we are about to embark on are Priority Questions. I am seeking the co-operation of all concerned to see that the five questions are disposed of within the time laid down under Standing Orders.
