Vol. 467 No. 1
41 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Education the reason the contents of private letters to her in connection with Bray vocational education committee were subsequently made available to the chief executive officer of that vocational education committee; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12683/96]
The issue relates to correspondence submitted by a number of parents who complained about the actions of a member of the teaching staff in a second level school in Bray. The procedure for dealing with such cases is that the employer of the teacher is made aware of the allegations. In this case, the Town of Bray vocational education committee is the employer. Where specific allegations are made regarding an employee of a vocational education committee, the vocational education committee, as the employer has a duty of care to the children in its care and must have these allegations investigated. It is incumbent on me as Minister to make the allegations known to the vocational education committee to enable it to discharge its responsibility. Where the complainants indicate that they do not want their identity known outside the Department, this wish is normally acceded to. Nothing in any of the letters received by my Department in this case indicated that the authors wished to retain their anonymity.
