Education Department fighting 250 court cases

THE Department of Education has revealed that it is involved in 250 cases before the courts.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin said the cases included litigation relating to primary, community and comprehensive schools.

The cases also relate to child detention schools, special educational needs, school non-attendance, school transport, litigation arising from industrial relations actions, contractual disputes and what she called a “diverse range of matters in the education sector”.

The minister made the statement in response to a question asked during a Dáil debate last Thursday by Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen.

Ms Hanafin also stressed that these cases were separate from the 661 child abuse cases relating to industrial and reformatory schools and residential institutions.

The number of court cases was revealed in the same week that the High Court decided not to order the State to provide a six-year-old autistic boy with the education demanded by his parents.

Seán Ó Cuanacháin’s family wanted the court to force the State to provide him with 30 hours a week of tuition called Applied Behavioural Analysis.

Fine Gael spokeswoman on education Olwyn Enright said that the figure of 250 cases “did seem quite high”.

“It is testament to the fact that families feel that the only way they can get the care for their child is to go to court,” she said.

“Day in, day out, I am meeting lots of families who can’t access what they need for their child and do not have anywhere to turn.”

She said it was possible that some litigation cases were for instances such as children falling in the school yard, an occurrence which could lead to an action being taken against the school’s board of management and the department.

However, she said other cases could relate to issues such as the school transport catchment boundaries, which have not been updated since 1968.

The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on Education recently received submissions from schools and parents keen to have the boundaries redrawn, and Ms Enright said “at least 50 or 60 submissions” were received.

However, consultants are unlikely to be appointed to look at the issue until after the next Dáil convenes in the aftermath of the General Election.