Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

151. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of establishing the office of the ombudsman for education with the remit of examining decisions by the boards of management of schools and the refusal of supports for children with special educational needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12198/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware the Programme for a Partnership Government provides that the role and power of an Ombudsman for Education, to whom a parent could complain and appeal on foot of a decision by a board of management, will be examined by the relevant Oireachtas Committee to ensure its consistency with the need to ensure better local decision making and accountability to parents.

The Programme also provides that the Government will introduce a stronger complaints procedure and charter for parents, and commence the Fitness to Teach provisions of the Teaching Council Act.

Both of these commitments are part of a continuum because having a dedicated ombudsman with a power to deal with parental complaints would be a residual, but potentially important, function where local resolution has failed.

I think that the relevant Oireachtas Committee will need to consider both programme commitments together. Work already underway in my Department envisages legislative change to Section 28 of the Education Act 1998, and creating an ombudsman with powers to externally review school actions would require new legislation that could be progressed in tandem.

The cost of establishing any office of an Ombudsman for Education can only be considered after the relevant Oireachtas Committee has considered both programme commitments.