Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I add my congratulations to Dr. Muldoon on his appointment and thank him for coming in today. I commend Deputy Daly on his very passionate contribution. I wholeheartedly agree - as the song says, "You took the words right out of my mouth." I know Deputy Daly was a teacher in a former life. I think everybody across the education field would feel his frustration. Some 47% of the cases the ombudsman deals with are education-related. I have come across it as well.

Whom do schools answer to? I have brought queries and complaints up the chain of command in instances when parents have gone to principals. I know of one case in which several letters were completely ignored by a principal over the space of nine months. I advised the parents to bring the matter to the attention to the board of management, which they did. They got two communications from the board of management, both containing conflicting reports. They were then told by the Department that they needed to take the matter to the religious order. The bishop said "Sorry, that is not my remit; you need to go to the trustees of the school." Parents are just chasing the whole time in these situations. They went to the trustees of the school, who at first were very hesitant to meet with them. The trustees agreed to meet, but in a public place, and then they came armed with other people. Of course nothing the parents said was taken into consideration. The trustees walked back out and totally backed the principal, having admitted that what had happened was wrong. It left the parents not knowing what to do. They did not want the matter to blow up into a major case. They just walked away and said "Education system? Forget it." All I can say to those parents is that I completely agree because from the top down there is absolutely nobody to whom the schools will answer. It is even the way the board of management is structured - if it is a religious school there will be representatives from the religious order and it is all very carefully done. I totally agree that we need somebody to whom schools are completely answerable. I am saying this as somebody who has been in the education profession, as a mother and as a public representative who has dealt with cases like the one I have described.

There is nothing more soul-destroying than for somebody to go through all the correct procedures, trying to get a better solution for our young people, only to have it thrown back in his or her face, or for someone to have the powers that be within a school turn around and say "We are not answerable to anybody. We are not answerable to the Department or the Minister. We do what we do ourselves." If there is a grievance, it has a knock-on effect on pupils too. If they see that nothing can be done for them, they tend then to go inside themselves. We can have all the bullying policies we like but if something is not seen to be done those policies are futile.