Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The very reason we are introducing this legislation is that schools believed the criteria set out were insufficient to enable them to look after the health, safety and welfare of other students. The issues to which Senator Ulick Burke referred arose prior to the introduction of this Bill, when there were no criteria or guidelines and no issues for the appeals board to consider. This legislation requires the board to consider other students. If an individual student has offended in a persistent, serious or dangerous manner, an appeals board must take into consideration the issues raised by the Senator, namely, the other children in the school and their teachers.

The appeals board comprises two independent people and an independent but full-time inspector of the Department of Education and Science. None of the three will be a full-time official of the Department. The Department does not have a vested interested in any school in the country.