Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

On Committee Stage I stated I would consider the grouping of the words "nature, scale and persistence". I inquired into the matter and the advice is that whereas one must consider the nature, scale and persistence if any one of these elements is not present, the expulsion or the appeal either way can be considered on the basis of the other two elements or any one of the other two elements. It is not as if the three must be present.

I accept the Deputy's point. There could be a once-off incident where the scale is very serious and which, therefore, merited the action taken by the school. That would be upheld without the behaviour being persistent. Equally, I do not want to have a situation where somebody would be expelled just because the behaviour is persistent, although of a very low level. I understand the other elements would also have to be considered. Just because the three words are together does not mean they cannot be considered and accepted separately and in isolation.

The violent nature and seriousness of the incident that takes place has to be considered by the appeals board but it must also consider a number of other matters, including the code of behaviour in the school. The code of behaviour must indicate clearly what the approach will be to behavioural issues and specify what action the board will take as a result of various types of behaviour. As the Deputy will know from studying the legislation, the appeals board must also consider what efforts the school made, the reasonableness of any efforts made and all the other issues we discussed previously with regard to the health, safety and welfare of teachers and staff, and the rights and needs, including educational needs, of the individual child.

Taken as a whole, because a number of issues are being set out and there is a range of factors that the board must consider, the issues we are trying to address are covered in this section which is very well balanced. As I indicated, I checked the question of the grouping of the words "nature, scale and persistence". I am satisfied the three factors do not have to be present but, equally, no one factor on its own would be sufficient to be taken into consideration, for example, if behaviour had persistence but not scale.

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