State's powers may be “unconstitutional”

POWERS given to the State by education laws may be unconstitutional, a legal expert has warned.

The Education Act 1998 and other legislation has set out to give greater power to local bodies and schools, but also granted certain powers to the Minister for Education.

Oliver Mahon, a barrister and former school principal, said it was the clear intention of the Constitution to restrict and delimit the role of the State in the education system.

At an Irish Vocational Education Association conference yesterday, he posed the question whether powers granted to the minister or statutory bodies in recent laws were out of harmony with that meaning.

“The Education (Welfare) Act 2002 enters new territory by making statutory provisions in the area of school discipline and control, most notably in the areas of expulsion and suspension of pupils,” Mr Mahon said.

“I'm not necessarily saying that an enhanced role for the State is, of necessity, a bad thing.

“I am raising the question of whether it is a thing that the Constitution permits,” he said.

Assistant Secretary General of the Department of Education, Paul Kelly, said certain powers reserved to a minister could be exercised only when other agencies failed.

“We will increasingly see the department move from its traditional role of sanctioning and controlling activities of individual schools and agencies to one of significantly greater devolution to these bodies,” Mr Kelly said.

He referred, as an example, to teacher appointments previously submitted to the department now being sanctioned by local VEC committees, and moves to have new State bodies take over the department's role in relation to state exams and special education.

On the conference theme of how new laws have changed democracy in the education system, National Parents Council (Post Primary) president Michael O'Regan said parents still remained outside the decision-making process for major issues such as curriculum.

Mr O'Regan asked why some policies and procedures were created without consulting parents and when would they be recognised as a resource.

“Our basic right to help shape our children is being eroded and is being assumed by a State which seems to believe it can do a better job,” Mr O'Regan said.