Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his amendment. The amendment requires a school that decides not to deal with a grievance on the basis that it is vexatious or frivolous to notify the student, parent or parents as to why the school has deemed the grievance to be vexatious or frivolous and to keep a record of the decision.

Section 8 of the Bill replaces the existing section 28 of the Education Act 1998 and provides for new standardised grievance procedures in all schools. The charter guidelines will set out the details of the new grievance procedures and these will focus on dealing with complaints efficiently, effectively, fairly and, as far as possible, informally. The grievance procedures will be developed in consultation with the stakeholders, including parents and student representatives, which will help to ensure the procedures are straightforward, fair and accessible to parents and students.

The new section 28(1)(d) provides that the new grievance procedures shall include a requirement on schools to give reasons for decisions in relation to grievances. It is intended that this would also include schools giving reasons when they decide not to deal with a grievance when the grievance is, in the opinion of the school, vexatious or frivolous. Therefore, I consider that the Bill already provides for schools to provide reasons where they decide not to deal with a vexatious or frivolous grievance and that the amendment proposed is not required. However, I am happy to have this matter further considered. If it is considered necessary to include an explicit amendment to provide for this, I will be happy to bring an amendment forward on Report Stage.

I note that there appears to be an error in the wording of the amendment which uses the term "notify the complaint". The Senator has pointed out that this should read "notify the complainant".

While I will not accept the amendment in its current form, I am more than happy to consider the matter to try to provide more clarity on Report Stage. I will also consider making an explicit reference to the matter in the Bill. I will be happy to do that if the Senator is happy to work with me.