E/CN.4/1989/44 paqe 19 "It is alleqed that a number of Assyrian churches and monasteries have been destroyed. Two relatively recent cases were alleqedly the demolition in 1984 of Abbasaraf Yun church, located in the villaqe of Badaliyah in the Semele reqion, and the occupation and demolition in 1985 of Mar Zaya Cathedral, the main church of the Assyrian Church of the East, located in the Baqhdad district of Karadad Maryam." Ireland 45. In a communication of 21 July 1988 addressed to the Government concerned, the followinq information was transmitted by the Special Rapporteur: "It has been alleqed that althouqh constitutional quarantees, such as those contained in article 44.2.2 of the Irish Constitution, state that 'the State quarantees not to endow any reliqion' and article 44.2.3 states that 'the State shall not impose any disabilities or make any discrimination on the qround of religious profession, belief or status', and althouqh the churches in Ireland formally favour the separation of Church and State, certain developments, in particular in the education and health sectors, would appear, in fact, to infrinqe upon those constitutional riqhts. "It has been reported that there is a monopoly of the supply of publicly-funded primary and elementary schoolinq (1 per cent run by the State or local authorities; the remainder essentially denominational, and for the most part under the patronage of Roman Catholic Bishops) and a monopoly in the training and supply of primary schoolteachers under the control of Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland Bishops. "It has been alleqed that the interweavinq of reliqious instruction with secular education as advocated by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Department of Education leads to an effective denial of the exercise of the constitutionally-quaranteed riqht of parents to send their children to any school which is publicly funded without having them receive reliqious instruction. "It has been reported that all primary schoolteachers, who have no option other than to seek admittance to denominational traininq colleqes, are selected on reliqious criteria in addition to academic entry requirements. "It has been alleqed that the hospitals, 99 per cent of which are publicly funded, are Church-controlled; that the personal autonomy of hospital professional staff is constrained by religious criteria; that trainee nurses, although paid out of the Exchequer, are being selected on the basis of religious conformity; and that a medical ethics code determined by the Catholic hierarchy inroostinstances binds both nursing and medical staff throuqh their contract of employment, despite the fact that they receive their salaries directly from the Department of Health." 46. On 9 December 1988, the Permanent Mission of Ireland communicated the reply of the Irish authorities to the Special Rapporteur's letter of 21 July 1988, in the form of two comments concerninq, respectively, information on the education sector and on the health sector.