Dr. Michael Redmond:

Beannachtaí libh. Our written submission to the committee sets out some key challenges faced by schools in allocating places in situations where there are more applicants than places in any given year.

A particular challenge relating to the committee's focus today is the fact that parents can, and increasingly do, accept offered places from more than one school, cancel applications late, fail to present in September, and-or fail to communicate with the school about their intentions. We urgently need to address this anomaly if any real progress is to be made on the challenge of oversubscription.

It is important to recognise that current legislation and regulation around the enrolment process can present challenges to making timely provision for incoming students with special cognitive, physical or sensory needs. For such applicants, our schools require a longer timeframe than the one year set out in the Bill. That said, neither current legislation, nor indeed any legislation, can address the fact that, in some areas throughout the country, there is a shortage of school places.

What is certain is that, in oversubscription situations, the practice of prioritising siblings and children or grandchildren of past pupils arose from a concern for continuity of family experience and for the primacy of parental choice as protected in the Constitution. Schools, like families, are not solely operational entities. They thrive on relationships, values, continuity, local community cohesion and loyalties built up over time and, indeed, generations.

In terms of transparency, schools must declare the number of places being made available in first year. They must admit all applicants if places are available and must specify the criteria that will be used if the school is oversubscribed. All schools that were oversubscribed in the previous year must publish a breakdown of the total number of applications received and the number and order of offers made in that year by reference to each of the selection criteria.

Section 62(10)(a) of the Education Act 1998 allows schools to include a criterion based on a student's connection with the school by virtue of a sibling attending or having attended the school. Section 62(10)(b) allows schools to include a criterion based on a student's connection to the school by virtue of his or her parent or grandparent having attended it. The parent or grandparent criterion is subject to a maximum of 25% of the places being made available by the school.

It is important to note that there appears to be a misconception that, where schools choose to include the parent or grandparent criterion, 25% of the total number of places being made available are automatically set aside for qualifying applicants. In our experience, very few schools reach the allowed cap of 25%. The school may not be oversubscribed or the criterion may have been placed down the list of criteria so that it is not reached at all or, where reached, very few places remain to be allocated.

The JMB supports the retention of section 62(10)(b) and welcomes the committee's focus on oversubscription and the shortage of school places more generally