This oppression would suit authoritarian regime

We are trying to fight for a religious-free education for our kids, so why is the State so against us,

IN late 2016 we became aware that, on foot of a complaint, the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) was investigating whether our voluntary organisation, Education Equality, was considered a ‘third party’ under the Electoral Act. We didn’t even know what that meant at the time. We were just a group of ordinary people trying to work on an issue we passionately believed in; trying to get our children access to an education without discrimination on the basis of religion.

We were lucky enough to have received a modest enough donation from the Humanist Association of Ireland, which gave us some seed money to set up a website and launch our campaign. We had no idea that laws which are meant to stop corruption in politics could be used against us, to try to block us from advocating for change.

The impact of this on our organisation has been crippling. As a group of volunteers, we continued to operate under the shadow of potential legal and criminal sanction. The association has no access to legal services, so the time commitment in trying to engage constructively with SIPO as volunteers was huge.

We were left trying to defend our position and keep the organisation alive — all the while terrified of the criminal consequences on us as individuals, the possible impact on our careers and our families. As volunteers we don’t expect to be treated like this, not in Ireland.

Education Equality is an entirely voluntarily run organisation and beyond a website there are no assets, no premises and no staff. All of the officers have day jobs and are personally affected by the inequality in education. We are just ordinary people trying to change something that we think is unjust and unfair and which has had a negative impact on our families and our children.

All of the committee contribute in their spare time and have in fact incurred personal expense at times.

Despite what has been a stressful and challenging year following this threatening approach by SIPO, we are still doing all we can to keep going.

Education Equality has, thankfully, survived and 2018 will be a crucial year for our campaign.

The State should be supporting the efforts of activists, not punishing or threatening us.

SIPO’s draconian rules didn’t just apply to us, the recipient of the donation. The Humanist Association of Ireland, who so generously gave us the €10,000 seed funding, was forced by SIPOC to register as a ‘corporate donor’.

Up to now a ‘corporate donor’ was viewed as an individual or organisation that contributed resources, usually financial, in the promotion of a candidate or political party in order to influence a very specific outcome at election time (or during a referendum). However, recently SIPOC has decided to take an extremely wide interpretation of political purpose, third parties and corporate donors.

It seems to us that there are two issues. Firstly, the Electoral Act itself is too vaguely worded and allows for misinterpretation and the disproportionate choking of campaigning and public policy work by NGOs that has been revealed over the weekend. And secondly, SIPO itself has a wavering and inconsistent approach to regulating this Act.

But the net point is that somehow we, a small group of concerned parents who just want our children to be able to attend their local national school, have found ourselves threatened with criminal sanctions for daring to speak out publicly on this issue.

We understand the need for a fair electoral process and even the need for organisations who are actively trying to influence the outcome of an election or referendum to register as third parties once the electoral process begins.

Education Equality has no interest in influencing elections or a referendum, but simply achieving equality for children faced with discrimination at the hands of publicly-funded, national schools.

How SIPO can think the Electoral Act applies to our community group is baffling and wrong. My colleagues and I feel like we have been put through hell with the threat of criminal prosecution because we dared to start a local campaign to have religiousfree education for our kids.

This is an oppression that I would expect from an authoritarian regime, not the progressive country that Ireland is suppose to be.

‘My colleagues and I feel like we have been put through hell with the threat of prosecution...’