Talks between the State and religious bodies discussing areas of common concern began in Dublin today.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed a gathering of representatives of the main Christian churches, as well as Jewish and Muslim leaders and humanists, at a ceremony in Dublin Castle this afternoon.
Mr Ahern told the gathering they would not try to "recreate a special or privileged relationship with any denomination or creed" during the discussions.
"Rather the Government wants to inaugurate a new departure and an open dialogue with all denominations that is respectful of every faith and that is equally mindful of those who profess none," he said.
"It would be an irony of history if Catholic, Protestant and dissenter, having each experienced exclusion at some phase in our history, should now be bound together in a shared feeling of indifference from a secularised state," he added.
He said that there were those who felt that there was a shrinking role for religion in the modern era.
"On the contrary, so much of what is happening within our society and in the wider world is bound up with questions of religion, religious identity and religious belief, that Governments, which refuse or fail to engage with religious communities and religious identities, risk failing in their fundamental duties to their citizens," Mr Ahern said.
He added that it would be mistake to forget that Ireland had a 2,000-year-long religious tradition with Christianity.
"The moral attitudes inculcated in a culture of faith are at the core of the beliefs of very many more people who would not particularly consider themselves aligned with any particular creed or denomination," Mr Ahern said.
"If modern Ireland were to dislocate from its hinterland of religious belief, our culture and our society would be cut adrift from its deepest roots and from one of its most vital sources of nourishment for its growth and direction into the future," said Mr Ahern.
Mr Ahern also thanked the "visionary church personnel from all the denominations on the island, that we owe particular thanks for facilitating our education as a people".
The talks are intended to reflect the increasingly diverse range of faith communities in Ireland.
Other religious bodies at the talks will include the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and Moravian churches.
They will also include the Religious Society of Friends, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Salvation Army, the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Romanian Orthodox churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Council of Churches and the Humanist Association of Ireland.