Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 26 June 2025
Committee on Children and Equality
Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children
2:00 am
Dr. Niall Muldoon:
I think we probably do not have quite a final product in our heads but we have started to engage with the Department of education, the National Parents Council and people like that to say we need to improve what we are doing here. I do not think it is satisfactory for the schools, parents and teachers all of the time. Most of our complaints are, but we see a new range where they are more complicated and more difficult to get a solution. It would be wrong of me to say exactly what it will look like yet but somebody has to be able to insist something is done. It is not in our legislation to do that. The Department of education often will say it is nothing to do with it as it is an issue for the board. The patron does not do it and ultimately the principal can make his or her own decision. It is so complicated and I am not sure what the final product will look like.