Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator has made his point. As somebody who has sat on boards of management of special needs schools and other schools, and whose wife has been involved in special needs education in all her 38 years of teaching, I have some knowledge of how schools work.I have four children who went through primary and secondary school, as well as third-level education.

I cannot comment except to make a personal observation but the Senator has raised a fundamental point about, as I understand it, the legal status between a patron and a board of management and how they stand in relation to one another. In this instance, on the one hand, there is the patron, which has decided that it wants to sell, and, on the other hand, the board of management, which, ultimately, is the manager of an educational facility. I have always had great regard to the importance of boards of management but this is a fundamental legal point and the Minister has to decide if he agrees with the dissolution of the board. The Minister's note says that it is not appropriate for him to comment at this point. I will revert to the Minister with the Senator's observations and his contribution will be on the record of the House. The Minister will be made fully aware of the Senator's points.