Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Will the Minister outline, from her experience of the reporting of this issue by colleagues on all sides of the House, how widespread is this problem? It was brought to my attention by a number of parents in recent months. Will she agree at the very least that an audit should be undertaken to ascertain how widespread this issue has become? This must be the most bizarre new practice in our schools that children are being prevented from running in a school yard because of fear of litigation. It is a scandal. If that fear exists or if cases have been taken, surely there is an onus on the Minister and her Department to introduce composite insurance cover for schools to ensure actions cannot be taken against individual schools. Will the Minister arrange for an audit to be conducted in this regard? Will she consider the production of guidelines in this respect? Schools need to know that such a policy is not acceptable. We are trying to tackle obesity among children and ensure that children can remain children for as long as possible and now this practice is creeping into the school system. It is unacceptable.

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