Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have more of a comment than a question. It refers back to the students on the boards of management. I am chairperson of the board of management of an education and training board, ETB, school. We have students sitting on our board of management and their level of interest and interaction with the board of management is very good. They sit for the first half of the meeting and bring forward student issues. They have a huge role to play in terms of participation because there are certainly things which they bring up that we, as a board of management, would not be aware of had they not brought them to our attention. They are able to bring up issues that may have happened in the school or issues that they perceive as a problem. Their participation has certainly made our board of management very effective. I certainly believe they have a role to play on the board of management.

To go back to Deputy Jim Daly's comments, I have quite a bit of experience with boards of management under the Education and Training Board Ireland, ETBI, rules. I certainly think the ETBI is very forward thinking in respect of its policies and the different Acts that have been passed. Guidelines are set down which the schools adopt and run under the rules and regulations set down by their own policies. It is hugely important that there is an appeals process. That has worked very effectively. In the past there was a particular student who had issues with which the school might have had difficulties. The parents came to the board of management and objected to the rulings of the school or what it had been thinking about this particular student for something she had done. The board of management looked at it very carefully, as did the appeals board. Services were put in place to help that student. The right decision at the time was to overturn the decision of the school. There were certainly a lot of services put in place, including anger management for the student. The decision of the board of management and the small appeals committee of the board was the right decision for that student. That student went back into the mainstream school. She has left the school since but she did really well. Sometimes a board of management can find things to help the student and it does not always uphold the school's decision either.