Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 November 2023
339. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Education how many section 29 appeals were submitted for students trying to access a school place in Fingal for the school year 2022/2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52905/23]
View answerSection 29 of the Education Act 1998 as inserted by Section 7 of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018 provides for an appeal, where a board of management, or a person acting on behalf of the board of management (normally the school principal) refuses to admit a student to a school, suspends a student for not less than 20 days or permanently excludes a student.
Section 29 D of this legislation provides for an oral hearing to be provided in circumstances where the appeal taken relates to a suspension of not less than 20 days, a permanent exclusion and a refusal to enrol decision that is for reasons other than oversubscription.
Section 29 E of the legislation provides that any appeal taken in respect of refused enrolment due to oversubscription, will be considered without an oral hearing.
Each appeal type, both oral and paper based is considered and determined by a three person appeal committee, appointed by me, as Minister, in accordance with Section 29 A(1) of the Act.
Within each appeal type, there is a provision for the hearing committee to allow or disallow or refuse to hear or determine the appeal before them. Section 29D, E and F outline the considerations that the appeals committee must make in determining each appeal. An appeal committee of three persons is appointed to consider each appeal.
Unfortunately, Section 29 Unit are unable to provide statistics for specific regions of the country and are only in a position to provide statistics relative to a specific county. To that end, Section 29 Unit are only able to provide statistics relative to the wider Dublin region. From 01 December 2021 to 30 June 2022 for the school year 2022/2023 in the County of Dublin, there were 94 Section 29 appeals under refusal to admit for oversubscription and reasons other than oversubscription during that period.
