Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I have another point. We looked at the issue of school admissions that Deputy O'Brien raised. I personally think that there are constitutional issues, and that is our advice. There are a lot of soft barriers. In his submission, Mr. Walsh mentioned that and the parental rule, which constitute blatant discrimination. When an audit of enrolment policies was done by the Department and the ESRI, they found that the soft barriers were as big an issue - things like the "first come, first served" policy, which is in the legislation. Very often soft barriers can be the real issue. Are Travellers more likely to be stopped from going to school on the basis of a "first come, first served" enrolment policy than by the parental rule? The latter rule is in so few schools. Very often, soft discrimination can be hidden but is more prevalent.

I am not familiar with the case that was mentioned. Obviously, it is a damning indictment of the system that someone could be refused a place on that basis and that a school could get away with that. However, was it because of the framing of the legislation around a school's ethos and being allowed to organise education around the religious ethos? Was that the crucial issue? Most schools are the opposite of that. I know of so many cases in which schools have gone out of their way to keep people in the education system. It is very bad that a school would get away with that, but I wonder what the crucial factor was there if they got away with it.

Does anyone else want to come in at this stage?