Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 April 2006
368 Ms Enright asked the Minister for Education and Science the process to be followed when appeals against the refusal by a school to enrol a child are lodged to her Department under section 29 of the Education Act 1998; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13959/06]
View answer369 Ms Enright asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of appeals lodged to her Department against the decision to enrol a child under section 29 of the Education Act 1998 since the legislation came into force; the number of such appeals which have been successful; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13960/06]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 368 and 369 together.
Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 provides for an appeal to the Secretary General of my Department where a board of management of a school or a person acting on behalf of the board refuses to enrol a student, suspends a student for more than 20 days in an academic year or expels a student from the school. Appeals must be dealt with within 30 days of receipt but an appeals committee may seek an extension of not more than 14 days.
Appeals are processed under detailed procedures in three stages. The first stage, local resolution, lasting seven days, allows time for a local resolution to emerge. The second stage, facilitation, involves the appointment of an independent facilitator. The facilitator seeks to resolve the issue underlying the appeal to the satisfaction of both parties. Appeals which are not resolved at the local or facilitation stages progress to the third stage, appeal hearing, a full hearing before an appeal committee. An appeals committee consists of three people, one of whom is a departmental inspector. The committee members are drawn form a panel of experienced educationalists many of whom are ex-school principals.
When an appeal has been determined, the appeals committee must set out its decision, its reasons for the decision and, where an appeal has been upheld, any recommendations to the Secretary General as to the actions to be taken to remedy the matter. If an appeal is upheld, the Secretary General may then give directions to the board of management to remedy the matter which was the subject of the appeal and the board is required by the Act to comply with such directions.
In the case of a school established or maintained by a VEC, the appeal against the decision of the board of management of the school will be made, in the first instance, to the VEC. If the appellant remains unhappy with the outcome of this process at VEC level he or she has an entitlement to make an appeal directly to the secretary general.
My Department has received 548 appeals against decisions to refuse to enrol pupils, and 279 of these appeals were either resolved prior to hearing or were withdrawn by the appellant. Of the 269 appeals which went to hearing, 156 were upheld in favour of the appellant and 113 were not upheld.
