The Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (1998 No.

12)) is an order in Council for Northern Ireland consolidating and strengthening legislation regarding "fair employment".

[1] The Order established the[1] The Fair Employment (School Teachers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 amended the Order to remove the exemption that teachers had from the legislation[2] The exemption of teachers from the original legislation was described as an anachronism which justified discrimination.

[3] The Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, has supported the legislation, and said the exemption was "no longer appropiate or required" and also described the assumption that everyone was either a Catholic or a Protestant as bizarre, while also noting concerns the move could be used as a "Trojan horse" to remove a Catholic ethos in schools.

[4] Arlene Foster had supported removing the exemption in 2021.