Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I also congratulate Dr. Muldoon on his appointment. There can be no doubt as to Deputy Daly's commitment. As an educator and someone who managed a school himself, it is particularly poignant that he raised this matter today, and I am impressed by the way he spoke. I could not support him more if I tried. Deputy O'Brien is right, though. We need to go further, because some of the legislation we have facilitates the type of nonsense that goes on in our education system. We have here many people who have worked in the education system, including myself. I certainly want enforceability of decisions.

There is a problem which I encountered this last year during the exam term. The leaving certificate examination is the make-or-break point for a young person of 17, 18 or 19.

It can determine their future life, where they are going or where they are not going. Sometimes we have requests for extra facilitation because a student has a particular diagnosis or whatever. If such a request is refused, one must go through the appeals mechanism and work one's way up the line. In some cases, the fault for any delay lies very much on the side of the student or parent for not raising the issue much earlier in the year. Sometimes it is a case of tardiness on the part of the school in not driving the matter forward. If the decision is that the requested facilities will not be provided, it may be too late for an appeals process to kick in. Where there is doubt and a time constraint, we should favour the student, not the Department. We should put the facilities and mechanisms in place to allow students to take the examination with whatever supports they or their professional advisers deem necessary. If we afterwards find we made a mistake, it is a bit like hanging and one cannot go back and change it. On the other hand, if we make a mistake by not providing the facilities that were, in fact, required, then we are in serious trouble.

On the question of the power of principals, I have a difficulty with a situation where the board of management has a very dominant principal and it is his or her ethos rather than the school's ethos that finds its way through the system. For all intents and purposes, such principals become the gate blockers or gatekeepers who can prevent certain actions being taken. I am not saying this happens all the time, but it does happen from time to time. Judging by what I have heard today, Deputy Jim Daly will have no difficulty in getting his legislation through the Oireachtas. At least I hope that will be the case.