Traveller equality ruling ‘well thought out’

THE equality ruling which upheld a young Traveller boy’s right to attend his local secondary school was a “well thought-out and well-reasoned ruling” and will have implications far beyond the Travellers’ movement, the Irish National Teachers Organisation has said.

A spokesperson for the largest teachers’ union in Ireland welcomed the ruling saying it was “very interesting and very good”.

“Schools do these things in good faith but they have to be tested.

“I think in recent years primary schools have been better and do not have the criteria that a parent must have attended the school, but I am aware it is a lot of second level schools and it does not just affect Traveller children. In relation to primary schools it can be an older sibling rule which can pose a problem.”

The INTO said the Department of Education should guide schools and have more of an input.

On Thursday, the equality tribunal ruled that a Christian Brothers’ High School in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, had indirectly discriminated against Travellers with its policy of prioritising certain applicants for being a Catholic, having or have had a brother or father attend the school, or having attended a local feeder school.

The Equality Tribunal found the school’s admission policy was indirectly discriminatory against Travellers and ordered the school to offer a place to the young boy.

The judgment will have implications for all schools that operate such a policy.

Ramona Quinn, the solicitor from the Law Centre of the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM), which took the case, said the ruling simply highlighted what is already in place under the Equal Status Act 2000 and what schools should be already taking into consideration under this legislation.

The act relates to discrimination based on the nine grounds — gender, marital status, family status, age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, membership of the Traveller community.

Ms Quinn said the ITM was hoping to work with the Department of Education in the future to focus schools’ attention on the act and what it means for admission policies.

She said the case threw light on the issue of admission policies and the hurdles some people might have to face and that the Department of Education acknowledged that admission polices at some schools can actually serve to discourage the enrolment of Travellers.

“Thankfully the boy’s mother, Mary Stokes, really wanted him to go to the school and it was because of her insistence that we were able to take this case.”

Ms Quinn said it was also important to note that the school had been ordered to review its admission policy to ensure it does not indirectly discriminate against pupils on any of the nine grounds covered by the Equal Status Act.