Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 525: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the enrolment of a child at a school; the advice he would give in this case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13369/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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It is a matter for each school's Board of Management to have an enrolment policy and to then operate that policy in a fair and consistent manner having regard to the overall physical capacity of a school. 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 to a student. Where a school refuses to enrol a pupil, the school is obliged to inform parents of their right under Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 to appeal that decision to either the relevant Vocational Educational Committee or to the Secretary General of my Department.

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) is the statutory agency which can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. The NEWB advises parents to apply to more than one school in order to assist in securing a school placement. The Board can be contacted at National Educational Welfare Board, National Headquarters, 16-22 Green Street, Dublin 7 or by telephone at 01-8738700. My Department's responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places. This may result, however, in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice. That is no more than a normal feature of the enrolment process in any community.

As I have previously pointed out in the House, the changes to the classroom staffing of primary schools reverts schools to the position that applied just over one school year ago. Schools are given teaching resources commensurate with their enrolment and under the staffing schedule schools with like enrolments are treated in the same way. In terms of accommodating pupils I believe it is totally reasonable to expect schools to operate from next September no less favourably than they did in 2006/2007. It is not acceptable that any school authority would in the coming year alter its approach to enrolment as a means of pressurising the government. Any school acting in this manner must ultimately answer to its local community and to the parents and children in that community in particular.

My Department has written to the primary schools that are projected to have a net loss in classroom teaching posts in September, 2009. These teacher allocations are provisional at this stage and reflect the initial allocation position. The allocation process includes appellate mechanisms under which schools can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedules. In addition to the mainstream classroom teachers my Department also allocates teaching resources to schools for special needs and language support. The final allocation to a school is also a function of the operation of the redeployment panels which provide for the retention of a teacher in an existing school if a new post is not available within the agreed terms of the scheme.