Hanafin vows to publish school inspection reports

REPORTS on school inspections will be published in future to give more information to parents, Education Minister Mary Hanafin said yesterday.

Her announcement comes despite a Supreme Court ruling which prevented the release of a whole school evaluation (WSE) report on a Dublin school. The principal of Scoil Choilm, Crumlin, Barney Sheedy, had appealed a High Court decision to grant access to the report sought by The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Department of Education had initially refused The Irish Times request for the reports on five Dublin schools, but this decision was overturned by the Information Commissioner Kevin Murphy and subsequently by the High Court.