Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There will be further increases next year and the following year.

To reassure the Deputies about the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, the Bill, in subsection (4A), states that the appeals committee can uphold a complaint in relation to a permanent exclusion of a student from a school if the student or the parent of the student can show that subsection (1) or (4) of section 24 of the 2000 Act has not been complied with, which is the bit of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 that refers to a school notifying the National Educational Welfare Board. In other words, if a student or a parent can show that the school has not fulfilled its obligations in telling the National Educational Welfare Board that it intends to expel a student, the appeals committee can automatically act in favour of the student. That is written into the legislation.

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