Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I certainly will. I have a brief summary of the case and went through many of the issues. I can see that the decision is in line with policy, but I will take up the file and go through it in detail, which I would do for all such cases.

There is often a perception that such cases are exceptional, but they are not. They are quite common, and the policy was set to the effect that children would go to the nearest school that had or could have the resources to match needs. In this case, the family picked a different school which is further away. The criteria are quite clear that children must attend the nearest school which can accommodate them. Young people in other counties travel for 80 or 90 km and receive transport because they are attending the most suitable schools which had the required resources.

There are 10,000 cases, many of which are quite similar to this one. I have reviewed many files, and will review this one to see if anything was missed. I am not allowed to change the rules because that would not be fair to everybody else. There are rules for a reason. A review is taking place, which may help to change things in the future. At the Senator's request I will review the file in detail and see if there are any issues we can help with in case something was missed.