Kerry school challenges ruling directing it to enrol two siblings

A primary school has brought a High Court challenge after a committee set up by the Department of Education ruled it had to enrol two additional students.

The school, located in Co Kerry, was asked last September to enrol two siblings. It told the family it could not take them because the maximum student capacity had been reached and its classes were full.

The children’s mother appealed that decision to the Department of Education and Skills. The Secretary General of the Department established a three-person committee to consider the appeals.

The committee upheld the mother’s appeals and ruled last month the school should immediately admit the two children.

The school’s board of management claim the committee’s decision is flawed and has brought High Court judicial review proceedings seeking to have it set aside.

Represented by Feichín McDonagh SC, the board claims the committee erred in law and applied the wrong legal test when arriving at its decisions.

The committee, it is claimed, sought to apply provisions of the 2018 Education (Admission to Schools) Act to the application to enrol the children in the 2020-21 school year.

Counsel said those regulations do not operate and have no legal effect in respect of admissions made before September 2021.

It is further argued the committee erred by finding the school was not oversubscribed, and that it had failed to comply with the 2018 Act.

In its action against the Secretary General and the committee, the board of management wants orders quashing the committee’s decision and remitting the appeal to a new committee for a fresh consideration.

The school also seeks declarations including that the committee’s decisions are irrational, contrary to common sense, null, void and of no legal effect.

The mother of the children seeking to be enrolled, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is a notice party to the action.

Permission to bring the challenge was granted, on an ex-parte basis, by Mr Justice Charles Meenan on Monday. He made the matter returnable to early next month.