Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 547: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the protests being undertaken by schools (details supplied) in County Wexford that are excluded from the catchment area; if disruptions will continue; the action she will take to prevent this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21010/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has been engaged with the post-primary school referred to by the Deputy for some time regarding the necessity of operating an enrolment policy that respects its defined catchment area. This school is heavily oversubscribed as a result of a significant number of pupils enrolling from outside its catchment area, including from the primary schools to which the Deputy refers. This development can impact negatively on those who are entitled, as of right, to a place in a particular school by virtue of the fact that they reside in the area and attend the appropriate feeder schools. It also invariably impacts negatively on the school or schools which these pupils should rightly attend and in which considerable capital investment has been made for this purpose. It is a matter for all school authorities, in the context of their enrolment policies, to limit enrolment to within their defined catchment areas to ensure that such situations do not arise.

Where a school refuses to enrol a pupil, the school is obliged to inform parents of their right under section 29 of Education Act 1998 to appeal that decision to the Secretary General of my Department. Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 provides parents with an appeal process where a board of management of a school or a person acting on behalf of the board refuses enrolment of a student. An appeal will generally not be admitted unless it is made within 42 calendar days from the date the decision of the board of management was notified to the parent or student concerned. However, a longer period for making appeals may be allowed as an exception where it is accepted that circumstances did not permit the making of an appeal within the 42 day limit. Where an appeal under section 29 is upheld, the Secretary General of my Department may direct a school to enrol a pupil.