Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This amendment is in two parts.Part (a) provides that the Minister may allow for a review of the charter guidelines from time to time, as he or she considers appropriate and with the review of the charter guidelines to take place before the end of each relevant period. Part (b) provides for a definition of the relevant period, which is every five years starting from the date on which this section of the Bill comes into operation. On Committee Stage, Senator Gavan proposed an amendment to provide that the charter guidelines would be reviewed at least every five years. I could not accept the Senator's amendment as worded at that time, but I agreed to introduce an amendment to achieve the Senator's aim on Report Stage. The amendment I am now proposing still allows for the Minister to review the guidelines from time to time if he or she needs to, but it also ensures that they must be reviewed at least once in every five-year period starting from when the relevant section of the Bill is commenced, as Senator Gavan proposed. It is important that the Bill provides for a mandatory periodic review of the guidelines while also allowing the flexibility to review the guidelines at a shorter interval if a matter addressed in the guidelines needs to be updated or revised, or if an urgent or new issue emerges in schools that could be addressed in the charter guidelines. I thank the Senator for identifying this need on Committee Stage and I am pleased to be able to bring forward the amendment to address it now. I hope both the Senator and this House can support this amendment.