Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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215. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the Education Admission to School Bill will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas for debate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48609/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Government gave approval in March of this year for drafting the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2014 and the bill is currently at an advanced stage of drafting. The Bill is on the Government legislative programme for publication early in the Spring/Summer session.

The objective of the Admissions to School Bill is to provide an over-arching framework to ensure that how schools decide on who is enrolled and who is refused a place in schools is more structured, fair and transparent. The framework also proposes a mechanism for ensuring that every child receives a school place.

A key objective in designing the framework is to create greater confidence for parents that the admission criteria laid down by schools are legitimate, reasonable and fair.