Ms Eithne Reid O'Doherty:

I do not see how it will work in practice. First, there is no definition of oversubscription, whether it is when they have two over, ten over or 100 over. Supply and demand seems to be working in some areas. Some schools are very popular and people head towards them. Other schools are less popular and they have free capacity. There is the issue of dealing with the significant oversubscription in some schools. Other schools will say it works out over the summer in that parents apply to multiple schools, they have their choices in priority and it works out. As the school places get filled, come the month of August the child has a place.

As for the designation of a place by the National Educational Welfare Board to override a school policy, how will it stand constitutionally? There is the aspect of ethos and characteristic spirit.

As to whether it will work in practice, I do not know. There is a need for it in some areas to get children into schools. They take section 29 appeals against multiple schools. That happens where the child is looking for a place. If it could be sorted out with some to say the child will go to that school, it would rectify the problem.

There is an appeal from that. The draft does not yet state where the appeal is to. As a result, one would suppose an appeals body will be retained for this as well as the designation by the special educational needs council.

I would recommend to the special education needs council that a quota of places be allocated in each school for children with special needs. There are some schools that have a very small intake of children with special needs. It should be representative of the common population of those with special needs. They all are clustered in some schools. Some schools will say there is 30% special needs in their schools at second level and some schools have none.

On another improvement, I note section 29 appeals were hit but they provide for accountability, transparency and the fostering of good practice. I have seen over the years that schools get better in their practice when they have been subjected to a hearing. One improvement would be to publish decisions. Whatever body is put in place as an independent appeals mechanism, its decisions should be published. People would know what they were coming to and they would know the reasoning. It would foster good reasoning within the committee or tribunal.