Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I will not be drawn into a discussion of the content of the report but will try to reply in a more general sense. Section 29 of the Education Act has been discussed in the House and it has been proven that where proper procedures are in place, the section favours schools. This can be demonstrated by the results of appeals over recent years. For example, of the 87 appeals made in 2003 and 2004 against expulsion in the post-primary school sector, schools won twice as many cases as they lost. That represents a significant increase on initial years when schools did not have proper procedures in place. I will be happy to facilitate any changes recommended by the report.

One of the first matters raised with me by the ASTI and TUI after my appointment was that they wanted an immediate answer to the question of whether to publish. The speed in which the task force produced its report reveals a commitment in this area. I am unaware of any other situation where money would be provided to implement recommendations of a report before it is even published. However, a coherent response from a number of different groups is needed because schools cannot solve this problem on their own and need the co-operation of boards of management, parents and my Department. The counselling issues raised by the Deputy will require a co-ordinated response from agencies including the National Educational Psychological Service and the National Educational Welfare Board.

The Deputy asked about other units and in that context, we have Youthreach, Youth Encounter and we may need to examine what other provisions should be put in place. I have always said that I am open to examining what is needed. Equally, curricular change can make an enormous difference to students in a school, that is, making sure that the type of curriculum that suits their needs is available in their schools, be that the junior certificate support programme, the leaving certificate applied programme or the leaving certificate vocational programme. There are a number of ways in which this can be changed and adopted. I am studying the report carefully at the moment because its publication will not start a debate. When I publish it, I will be asked what I intend to do about it. At the time of publication I want to be able to set out, immediately, how I intend to start spending the €2 million allocation and not to delay matters with discussing whatever recommendations I accept.

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