Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome the Bill. It is important to deal with any loopholes in the Education Act 1998. I welcome the task force on student behaviour which the Minister established.

Second level schools vary in their type and size. Students may be spoiled for choice in some instances. They can often move from a large to a small school within the same catchment area. More individual attention for a disruptive child in a smaller school might solve many of the problems referred to in the debate. Disruptive students are often forgotten about in large schools. However, not all problems can be resolved. The rights of the compliant majority of students who wish to learn must be respected while, at the same time, the interests of the individual student must be protected. Students may be spoiled for choice in some areas while in other developing areas it might be difficult to get a place in a second level school and that brings its own problems.

I agree with Senator Tuffy on the National Educational Welfare Board and I have always argued for more welfare officers and resources. When the Minister of the time established the board, the constituency of Galway East did not have a welfare officer. We were supposed to be covered by Galway city, which I could never understand. We were lucky enough to be assigned a welfare officer from Tuam, where there are five second level schools, and that was very welcome development. Before that we did not have a schools attendance officer and gardaí did the job, which would not normally be their job as they should have enough to do without having to check on school attendance. An ad hoc committee was set up involving the principals of all the schools in the area, gardaí and social workers. The committee members knew the name of all the students in the second level schools in the area, which was a great achievement on their part. I was disappointed that, when the National Educational Welfare Board was established, it did not incorporate some of the good points of those ad hoc committees, as they had expertise that could be still used in the field of absenteeism and early school leaving, which are two major issues at second level.

The issue of bullying was raised, which is also important and was something with which the ad hoc committee deal, and I hope the National Educational Welfare Board continues that work. The home school liaison officer is very important in that context because that is the person who keeps in contact with the progress of students who are absent or who leave school early. These points come to my mind when discussing the education of disruptive students in particular.

The Bill includes references to last resort measures and I hope sanctions are used only as a last resort. The Minister has taken a very practical approach, trying to act like King Solomon in looking after the rights of the majority of students as well as those of individual students. It is a very difficult task but the Minister has shown she is able to accomplish that.

Suspension of students is a difficult issue. The Education Act 1998 assumed it would work but it did not, because of various loopholes. All of us have heard of situations on programmes such as RTE's "Liveline" that can be traumatic for students. For example, as Senator Tuffy said, some parents move home and children find themselves in a different environment. The Minister also mentioned an all-Irish division in schools, which was very interesting.

I welcome the Bill as it clears up some of the issues we discussed back in 1998 when debating the Education Act. I hope the loopholes have now been closed, although, as Senator O'Rourke said, others may arise. We should increase resources for the National Educational Welfare Board and the number of welfare officers. Thankfully, gardaí in my county have got onto their bicycles and are looking after law and order issues in the town and in rural areas of County Galway.