Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is right in his point about boards being dissolved and I do not have evidence of that happening either to be quite honest. For me, this amendment was to prevent such a thing. We also never had an Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill. I feel there is room to begin to have more equality of input between students, parents and boards. There might be potential there to silence students or student councils.

I hear the Minister saying he cannot support this but between now and Report Stage would the Minister consider what we can put in the Bill in terms of the schools that theoretically say they have student councils but do not actually convene those student councils in any real formatted and structural way so that the students have a place where they can contribute to legislation such as this or to the general school community? Between now and Report Stage, would the Minister consider thinking about how we could put measures into the Bill whereby if a student council is in existence, it should hold a minimum of three meetings within the school year, or one meeting per term, for example? I would have to think about how that would look in practice but unfortunately, we have many schools that say and promote the idea they have a student council and yet, the teachers are not providing the space for the students to meet as a council. Whatever about not dissolving councils, it is about having councils and not being able to utilise them because they are not meeting. Sometimes that is not down to the students. I have experience of students constantly asking for the student council to meet, one teacher would have specific responsibility for the student council and they would find it difficult to nail that particular teacher down to set meeting times. Are there other less blunt ways of doing this than through my amendment? Are there other avenues we can take to strengthen the role of student councils?