Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know but I want to register my protest officially. The record will show that I requested that the chief inspector be invited to come before the committee and I resent the fact that I have only two or three minutes to ask some questions.

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh na finnéithe agus gabhaim buíochas leo as ucht teacht isteach inniu. I spoke previously with the chief inspector about the teaching of the Irish language. I know it has been addressed already and, unfortunately, we have to rush now and therefore we will not get to have the discussion I was hoping to have.

Everybody is happy with the boards of management process in that it is acceptable and it works but where a difficulty arises or a parent has a problem with a board of management, does the inspectorate have a role in that regard? From what I can see the process seems to involve going around in circles from the board to the patron but the Department is keen to wash its hands of it. Everything is devolved, but it has also absolved everybody of their responsibility. I am curious to know the role of the inspectorate in regard to boards of management. Has Dr. Hislop dealt with complaints from parents about decisions by boards of management? Does he have a function in that area?

Related to that is the role of the Ombudsman for Children. I discovered recently that almost half of the 9,000 complaints to the ombudsman related to education. Does the inspectorate have a connection with the ombudsman or an input in that? Is there a two-way feeding system, so to speak, between the ombudsman and the inspectorate to address issues that arise?

The chief inspector mentioned twice the voluntary aspect of boards of management, which I accept and we all appreciate, but it is not a reason for having a hands-off approach, especially with the way boards have been in the news of late in terms of transparency and openness, and challenging boards. Teaching teachers is very important, and boards have a huge role to play in the educational well-being of any school and the population of that school. However, there is a huge appetite among parents with children in the school, and I know not all board members are parents, to contribute to the school, and people are willing to come on board in that regard. We can sometimes take a hands-off approach because it is voluntary.

On teaching the teachers, do the witnesses have an input into courses such as instructional leadership - they may not even be aware of them - carried out formerly by the Irish Vocational Education Association, IVEA, now the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI? Do they have an input into the training of teachers?