Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 March 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills

9:00 am

Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We had one where a school wished to reopen, having been closed. That case did not succeed. We had one where Secular Schools Ireland - if I have that name wrong I will clarify it in writing - took a case against us in relation to a process for determining patronage. We had ruled it out of the process because it did not agree to the criteria. It won its case, saying that we had not made it clear that it had been ruled out because it did not agree to the criteria. We are now making it doubly clear that if a body does not agree to the criteria, it is not included. When the Department is entering a new space, issues arise and there are legal challenges. We have to learn and develop processes to deal with it.