Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator comments are accurate. We sought to import into the Bill the discrimination grounds as set out in the Equal Status Act 2000. We are requiring schools to state in their admissions policies that they do not discriminate on any of the nine grounds in that Act. It was not the intention of this Bill to originate new provisions in the Equal Status Act. We have not carried out the necessary legal consultation necessary for us to develop such within this Bill. Definitions in parent legislation would be required to do that. While I acknowledge that the Senator has a point, as we try to develop schools admissions policies I do not think we should always require the wider context of an amendment to the Equal Status Act to be undertaken.

While socioeconomic grounds are not the subject of a specific provision in the Bill, as a result of the fact that the Equal Status Act contains a reference to them, section 62 sets out the prohibition on schools taking certain things into account. The section prohibits a school from taking into account the occupation, financial status, academic ability, skills or aptitude of a student's parents when deciding on an application. That is not far off what the Senator has in mind. I am not disposed to or capable of originating new equal status legislation in the context of the work we are doing on school admissions. The preferred approach would be for this to be developed in parent legislation rather than trying to graft something onto a Bill when I do not know how that would work through.

Any legislation has to go to the offices of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Attorney General to ensure that what is proposed is workable, robust and so on. That work has not been done and the approach in the Bill has been to accept the grounds as set out in the Equal Status Act. Wherever they are amended we will incorporate that into this Bill. We did not see this as an area in which we should originate new work under the Equal Status Act.