Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I wish to register my disappointment that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is not here. While I understand he is taking questions in the Dáil, there is also a Minister of State in the same Department, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, who happens to be a local Deputy and who would have great insight into the issue I am raising. For some reason, she is also unavailable and I have to debate the matter with a Minister of State from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I do not think it is good enough.

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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That is not a matter for the Chair.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I am just making my protest, if that is okay.

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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I appreciate that. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, will have the answer in any case.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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The office of the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad is a constitutional office. It asked the Minister for Education and Skills to come here to discuss a matter in respect of his Department. There is a Minister of State in that Department who is also a local Deputy-----

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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The Cathaoirleach has no role whatsoever in deciding which Minister comes to respond. The response will be the official response of the Department, I am sure. I appreciate the Senator's protest but let us get on with it.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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My protest is nothing personal against the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle. Perhaps he could convey it to the Minister for Education and Skills.

The issue at hand here is a school in Dún Laoghaire, the lands of which the patron body is determined to sell for commercial development. The board of management of the school is determined to stop that from happening. It mirrors a situation in St. Anne's Park affecting St. Paul's school, in the constituency in which I live, where the order has sold the lands to a private developer. Those lands were handed to the order by the city council for use as playing fields. A private developer now owns them and is trying to develop them. While there is major local opposition, it is spilt milk.

The issue in Clonkeen College, however, is not spilt milk. We have the bizarre situation where the patron body is now more than threatening to disband the board of management of the school, whose crime is merely defending the interests of the school and the local community. The Minister is the only person who can actually make the decision on this. That might be part of the reason we do not have a representative from the Department of Education and Skills to debate the matter with me. The Minister cannot hide behind constitutional advice, the Department or an Oireachtas committee. The decision is his and his alone. I understand from media reporting that it has to be made by tomorrow.

Will the Department of Education and Skills stand beside the patron body and, effectively, by the developer and sack the board of management? Is the Minister going to stand beside the board and the school community, many members of which are in the Gallery to watch the debate, including one of the local representatives, Councillor Deirdre Kingston? Will the Minister stand with the community and ensure that the board remains intact? It is a very simple question and a simple decision. If it was my decision, I know what I would do. I am interested to hear what has been handed to the Minister of State to read out.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I understand there was a communication between the various people who schedule the business of both Houses and that a request was made to move this particular item to facilitate the Minister to come in. I cannot say for definite how that evolved. I will read out what I was given and the best thing I can do is relate the Senator's concerns to the Minister, which I certainly will do.

I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the position in respect of Clonkeen College and a request by the school patron to dissolve the board of management. I have been informed by the Department of Education and Skills that the patron of Clonkeen College, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, ERST, has now sought approval to dissolve the board of management of the college in accordance with section 16 of the Education Act 1998. I understand that this request is connected to a legal case taken by the board of management in respect of the sale of land. This case is due to be heard by the High Court in March 2018.

The statutory process of dissolution is under way, in which the Minister for Education and Skills must make a decision having considered the submissions made. It would not be appropriate to comment on the matters that are related to the dissolution. For me to make a public comment on the request to dissolve the board of Clonkeen College would be to pre-judge a statutory function the Minister must now discharge.

That is the note I have. I will refer any comments or observations the Senator has back to the Minister for Education and Skills.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I do not like doing this. I acknowledge the Minister of State has been sent in here to do what he was asked to do. I understand the Minister is in the Dáil at the moment and can appreciate that. As for any communications that were made to my office in respect of this debate, I have no knowledge of them because I have not seen them. There is a Minister of State in that Department - who also happens to be a local Deputy - who could be here. I have received a six-sentence reply. The only person who can make this decision is the Minister. The Minister could make his views as to whose side he is on clearly known to the local community, the board of management and the patron body. Just as I mentioned that he did not have anywhere else to hide, he has found somewhere else to hide. This is absolutely ridiculous.

This is not a constituency matter for me. It is on the far side of the county as far as I am concerned. To my mind, it is a matter of national importance in which a patron body decided to sell off land in a school in order that a developer could build on local playing pitches. If the board of management decides to defend the rights of the school, the patron body is going to sack the board. The Minister has a determination to make as to whether he is going to sack the board. He did not come in here and did not send in his Minister of State, who happens to be a local Deputy, and then he sent a six-sentence reply on the situation. We are none the wiser as to what his decision will be.

I genuinely do not think this is good enough. I do not like playing party politics when it comes to issues like this. The matter is extremely important for this individual school and probably every school across the country that has playing pitches. Local communities will be asking if this is what they are going to be up against in a couple of years. They will be wondering if their local boards of management will be sacked too if they have a problem with it. Where is the Minister on this? If I was Minister for Education and Skills or if my party held that Ministry, this would be a very simple decision.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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.