Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It a truism of all jurisprudence that without a duty, one has no right. Somebody must have a duty and the somebody in regard to this subsection is the principal. We are talking about a subsection addressing the duties of principals. Those duties in regard to the all-important function under the Bill is the preparation of an education plan, but the parent must be consulted as a matter of statute law under this legislation. The parent still has rights under the Constitution. That is not being argued, but as far as the principal's duty is concerned, the parent has a right to be consulted along with others.

To insert the phrase "a spirit of partnership" is to introduce a vague criterion. It qualifies the involvement of parents in a manner that it would be impossible to properly define. I regret to advise the House that it is difficult to give a precise legal context to the somewhat elusive political concept of a spirit of partnership, something which many of our political leaders extol and which is spoken of highly in great dialogues between the social partners. The spirit of partnership, as a matter of pure statutory draftsmanship, does not add a great deal, if anything, to the section. It introduces, a vague, somewhat elusive criterion for the relations between the principal and the parent. Under the Constitution the parents' role is supreme and throughout the Bill the role of parents is emphasised.

The Bill places an obligation on the principal not only to consult parents, but to facilitate their involvement in the preparation of the education plan. That is written into the sections. The proposal regarding an amendment to an education plan following a transfer between schools is a collateral amendment tabled by Senator Tuffy. This can only occur after informing the parents of the proposed amendment.

The rights of parents are carefully secured in the Bill as it stands. I am not persuaded and neither is the Minister that the introduction of a phrase referring to partnership adds to the certainty of rights as well as duties that we want in this legislation. If anything, it can be argued that it detracts from them because it is open to the principal to argue that the parent has been guilty of failure to observe the spirit of partnership as equally as it is open to the parent to argue that the principal has been in default in failing to observe the somewhat elusive spirit of partnership.