Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to raise what I believe to be an extraordinary breach of the Irish Constitution, of international law and of the basic rights of the child and the urgent need to redress this breach. I refer to the imposition of conditions attached to student visas which are implemented by the Garda Síochána and which have the net result of depriving children of their rights. I will concentrate on two cases in the constituency which I share with the Minister present.

One case involves two parents, both of whom had paid very large fees to a third-level institution to do postgraduate studies. In one case the mother is continuing her postgraduate study in medieval history and the father has returned to the United States to continue his postgraduate study. Their child has been excluded from school, in flagrant violation of Article 42.4 of the Constitution which states, "The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative." This is not a qualified right; it is not confined to Irish citizens but is available to all children. In addition to the outrageous breach of Article 42.4, the woman involved has been told that she should provide for her child through private education. The only private education available to her is the Seventh Day Adventist school. This limitation on her choice is in clear breach of Article 42.3.1o. The Education Act 1998 is being broken and the Equal Status Act 2000, as amended in 2004 by the Equality Act, is being broken and the European Convention on Human Rights as introduced into Irish law as a binding form of law is being broken. The protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights shows the assurances to be quite similar to those in the Irish Constitution. Needless to say, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is being broken.

The Minister for Education and Science, in a reply to Parliamentary Question No. 741 of 11 December 2007, washes her hands of the entire situation by stating there is a clear process by which children are enrolled in school. She concludes the reply ominously and acknowledges, inter alia, "Indeed, under the Equal Status Act, schools may not discriminate in admission to schools except where this is necessary to maintain the religions values or ethos of the school." Her conclusion to the reply shows the flimsy basis for the discrimination. She said:

The report of the interdepartmental committee on the internationalisation of Irish education, published in 2004, sets out a strategy with the objective of enhancing the attractiveness of Ireland as a quality venue for international students and increasing the numbers of students coming to Ireland to participate in further and higher education and training and in the language sector. It was envisaged that students from outside the EU-EEA and Switzerland, other than refugees and those with humanitarian leave to remain in the State, would participate on a fee paying basis.

In the course of the discussions leading to the report, the position of minors attending school for second level education was discussed, and the existing immigration policy that student visas should be allowed only in respect of attendance at fee-paying schools was confirmed, on the basis that to do otherwise would give rise to additional demands on the State.

This is being implemented at primary level without any legal basis in outrageous breach of the Constitution. In addition, the Garda is involved in its implementation because, as such parents arrive to have their visas renewed, they are being told that if they have children in State schools, they must withdraw them and send them to a private school. Will the Minister please respond to the specific questions relating to the breach of the Constitution and the European Convention on the Rights of the Child? On what basis does the Garda have powers to instruct that a child be taken from a public school? It has no such powers. All efforts at finding where responsibility may lie have failed. I have concentrated on this case by way of illustration but there is another involving people from a much less wealthy background who are in the same position with their child who was accepted at a school, the principal of which has written to me about it. The child has had to be removed from the school on the instructions of the Garda under threat of deportation.

What right does the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform have to impose conditions that contradict the rights of the child which the Minister for Education and Science acknowledged in her reply? The view of the Department of Education and Science is that it has nothing to do with the Minister, as she only deals with admissions. The attitude of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is that it is entitled to make this condition. My advice to the individuals involved — three in total, two of whom came to see me directly in Galway — is to seek legal redress immediately. It is appalling that a totally illegal set of actions is depriving children of their right to a primary education.

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