Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 88: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a list of national schools currently with no board of management and in each case the reason for same. [19551/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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In accordance with the provisions of the Education Act 1998, the appointment of a Board of Management of a school is a matter for the relevant school patron. Under the provisions of the Act, where a patron determines that the appointment of a board is not practicable, or where the patron, with the consent of the Minister, has dissolved a board of management, the patron may appoint a manager or managers to perform the functions of the board. As the Deputy will be aware, the term of office of outgoing Boards of the circa 3300 primary schools expired on 30 November 2011 with new Boards being appointed from 1 December 2011. The agreed procedures for the appointment of Boards of primary schools are set out in my Department's publication "Constitution of Boards and Rules of Procedures 2011".

Under these agreed procedures, when the Board is appointed, the Patron is required to submit a declaration to my Department confirming same. The process of updating the Department's records from the declarations received from patrons is ongoing within my Department at present. However, at any given time, there are normally of the order of 20 to 30 primary schools in which the patron has, in accordance with the Act, appointed a manager or manager to perform the functions of the Board.