Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to contribute to the debate on this Bill, which I welcome. It has three basic strands, one of which is the internationalisation of education. This is a massive industry in Ireland and is estimated to be worth approximately €1 billion to the economy. The Bill will allow certain institutions to use the title "university" in their efforts to attract more students from abroad. There are plans to increase by 50% the number of students coming from abroad to study in Ireland. The existing number is 24,000 to 26,000. That is a welcome step and I am happy to support it.

Second, the Minister will have powers to prescribe post-leaving certificate, PLC, courses for the purpose of grant aiding those courses. That is a welcome development.

The third objective of the Bill is to amend the freedom of information legislation to exempt education and training board, ETB, schools from certain freedom of information regulations to prevent league tables of schools. Ordinarily, this would be contrary to my beliefs and I would be unable to support it. I understand that the reason for wishing to exempt them is to prohibit league schools and crude interpretation of data being presented by the media and so forth.

However, I must outline my further concerns at this stage. While the first strand relates to a growing sector at third level, which we all wish to support and see develop, and while I support the limiting of freedom of information in this instance, I feel very strongly about the need to open up our education system to more transparency as opposed to closing it down. I am interested in school boards of management, particularly primary school boards of management. The Minister and the House are well aware of my views in this regard. As a parent I am not entitled to get the minutes of the board of management meeting or to know what happens there. There is no transparency.

During the previous debate the House welcomed the nomination of Dr. Niall Muldoon, and I add my congratulations to Dr. Muldoon. I have dealt with him about this issue of boards of management, their lack of accountability and the frustration parents feel when they try to get answers from their school's board of management. It is interesting to note that the Ombudsman for Children's Office has received approximately 9,000 complaints since its inception, and 4,000 of them related to schools. That is a huge percentage of the grievances notified by people. We must look closely at the need and demand for accountability for the decisions and actions of boards of management and the impacts these decisions and actions have on the lives of school-going children and, indeed, the frustrations they are building up in their parents. Of the 4,000 complaints relating to school boards of management received by the Ombudsman for Children's Office, only a tiny percentage reached full resolution. That is an issue I discussed with Dr. Niall Muldoon in his previous capacity and I look forward to discussing it with him again in his new, elevated post. I again congratulate him on that.

I wish to make a final point. We are discussing exempting ETB schools from freedom of information regulations. While I am happy to support it in this instance and understand the rationale for it, I would have serious and grave reservations about any attempt to allow schools to keep information from people and passionately believe in the need to increase the information they provide. I take this opportunity to repeat my plea to the Minister to seriously consider establishing the position of an ombudsman for education. I ask the Minister to note that and respond to it in due course. I intend to progress it further with the Minister and the Department through our work in the education committee.

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