Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I can. I thank Deputy Corcoran Kennedy. First of all, we published a draft interim report from the Joint Committee on Education and Skills. Maybe I could ask that the report be circulated to all the members of this committee, which would be useful, and that we keep in touch with this committee. As I said, we had an interaction with the Department of Education and Skills recently and we will be returning to the subject and issuing a final report.

To be quite honest, it came as a bit of a surprise to all of us, as members of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills as well. We were looking, first of all, at Traveller education separately, and the representatives of Travellers groups told us about reduced timetables being a big issue for Traveller families. We subsequently decided we would conduct a full investigation on the issue and we found that other groups were similarly affected. For example, AsIAm, which represents those who are on the autism spectrum, came in and presented and it turned out that it was a very significant issue for children on the autism spectrum as well.

One of the worrying elements about it is that it is only supposed to be used rarely and as a last resort, but in practice it appears to be used, certainly by some schools, whereby the parent gets a phone call to collect the child and the child has to be taken home, but there would not be advance discussion with the parents as to whether this is a good or bad thing. In some limited situations, for example, where a child has a real phobia about school or whatever, the parents might say that it is good that the child does not have to spend the full day in school. In the majority of cases, however, it appears to have been purely the school acting off its own bat. Obviously, the school is much more powerful than the parent in many situations. Many parents themselves might have had a bad experience of school and would not feel that they could argue for their child in an equal way. This is another recommendation that we made, that there must be at least an equal relationship and that it should be with the agreement of a parent if reduced timetables are used.

No data are collected because these are not expulsions. This is something that the Department has stated it will correct.

Expulsions are recorded. Reduced timetables are not considered to be expulsions and, in some cases, a parent is made to feel that if he or she does not accept a reduced timetable, his or her child is at risk of expulsion. It is a really difficult issue for many families. By bringing it out into the open and insisting that data on it will be collected, that there will be proper engagement with parents and that it will only be used as a last resort, the system will change.

The managerial bodies and representatives of principals and deputy principals all stated that it should only be used on very rare occasions, but we obtained evidence that it is used quite a lot in practice. This means that a significant number of Traveller children and children with special needs are not getting access to their right to a full timetable in school. If they fall back, it is much more difficult for them to gain a proper education. It is a matter of rights. If this committee and the Joint Committee on Education and Skills argue strongly that this simply has to change, it will make a difference in the context of opportunities for Traveller children and children in some of the other categories.