Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

While the Minister and I are here today exchanging questions and answers about education policy and legislation, there is a 15 year old child in my constituency who has been taught at home for the last two years because he has not been able to get back to school. The Minister is familiar with the case because I sent the file over to him. He has all the medical, psychological and psychiatric evidence of the damage that has been done to that child. The parents have devoted their lives to efforts to get this matter resolved. There was an incident between the school principal and the child. The parents have been to the board of management, the National Education Welfare Service and the Department of Education and Skills, but nobody seems to be able to resolve this. The problem is that the current system holds boards of management primarily responsible for standards in the school even if a complaint is made against a member of the board. It is the equivalent of the police investigating the police.

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