10% rule on children of past pupils too restrictive - FG TDs

A number of Fine Gael TDs have criticised Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan’s new legislation governing schools’ admissions policies.

Under the Admission to Schools Bill, which was published on Tuesday by Ms O’Sullivan, a Labour TD, schools will be able to reserve a maximum of 10 per cent of places for children of past pupils.

Ms O’Sullivan’s predecessor Ruairí Quinn had proposed to cap this number at 25 per cent.

The Bill also preserves the right of denominational schools to give priority to children of their own religion.

Olivia Mitchell, a Fine Gael TD for Dublin South, said the cap of 10 per cent was “very restrictive”.

“I think that’s going to be a huge disappointment to parents who want their children to go to the same school [as themselves],” she said.

“I think it’s not unreasonable for parents to want to send their children to schools they went to themselves.

“It’s a shame that parents can’t choose a school that maybe they have a long affinity with, or, in many cases, where they are on the board of management and have worked with [the school] over many years.

“Even if it was 15 or 20 per cent. I just think 10 per cent is going to disappoint a lot of parents.”

Eoghan Murphy, a Fine Gael TD in Dublin South East, said the cap of 10 per cent was “too low”.

“We have this great resource in Ireland which is parents playing a very active role in schools,” he said.

“It’s a real strength of our education system and it’s important that where parents want to maintain a link with a school and send their children there, that that link can be maintained.

“From the evidence that Ruairí Quinn had, and the evidence I’ve seen, 10 per cent is too low. The 25 per cent recommendation I would support absolutely.”

Local derogation

Mr Murphy also said there ought to be “derogation” in this element of the Bill for people living locally.

“The derogation for local people needs to be strengthened,” he said.

“Religion should not be allowed to trump local people in terms of admission priorities. We have a situation here where people are getting baptised to get up the waiting list, which is disgraceful. That’s not good for the school and it’s certainly not good for parents and families, having to go through that sort of process to get access to the local school.”

A Fine Gael TD who did not wish to be named said the Bill was the product of an “ideological agenda” of the Labour Party. “The whole thing this year was for the Government to shut up, make no decisions, not rock the boat, and once things improved to hopefully tie ourselves to the economic improvement,” he said.

“This looks like it has the potential to piss off parents, piss off schools, and it just seems like bad timing. The Government has a year left of trying to hold the line, not make any mistakes, and go the country at the best possible time in terms of its poll ratings.

“This Bill, which was absolutely essential, has a lot of controversial stuff in it . . . Obviously there is an ideological point of view coming from Labour. I would have thought they would have been told ‘park that’ because we’re going to piss off a lot of parents with this.

Rich-boy schools

“It’s a traditional Labour ideological thing because all they can see is a couple of rich-boy schools in Dublin that have this past-pupil network, when in fact the past-pupil thing is important throughout the country.

“People want to send their kids to the school they went to if they are still living in the area where they grew up. That’s what [Labour] don’t realise. It’s an ideological agenda.”

The Fine Gael TD also suggested the Bill may be related to Labour Party electioneering.

“Labour’s approach to policy sometimes is to think that if they kick some guy in the balls, the other guys who hate that guy are going to somehow reward them,” he said. “But the truth is they’re not.

“Labour aren’t going to get any lower socioeconomic votes by targeting elites. That’s the mistake in their policy focus.

“They think they’re targeting some privileged schoolboy network, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. That’s the kind of mistake they made when they were trying to cut the pupil-teacher ratios for fee-paying schools.

“They thought Labour voters would reward them for that, but they didn’t, because if you’re someone who is never going to have the chance to send your kids to a fee-paying school, you’re not going to give a f*** if they’ve got less or more teachers.”

Mary Mitchell O’Connor, a TD for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, said enrolment at the beginning of the school term would be “impossible to manage” as the Bill did not adequately address the issue.

“The worry I have – and this is as an experienced school principal – is that we need to look at the applications process,” she said. “If you apply with your child and you get three schools, the principal won’t know until September 1st if your child is coming or not.

“Your child could have three places and somebody else could have no place. I think we need to structure it and set a date as to when places must be accepted. This will have to go into the guidelines.

“It would be most unfair if a school opens on September 1st, the children don’t turn up, and you’ve other children who were dying to get in who have been refused. That’s the worry I have and I know other principals have it. There’s nothing in it on that.”

Fine Gael TD for Meath East Regina Doherty said the prioritisation by denominational schools of pupils of the same faith was “wrong”.

“There are four schools in my village and every single one of them is Catholic,” she said. “So it isn’t a case that it’s fair, particularly given they’re State-funded educational facilities. They’re State-built, State-financed, through the capitation grant that every single teacher is paid for, and every single SNA is paid for. There can’t be discriminatory practices.

“It’s a State-provided educational service. Just because I’m not a Catholic, I shouldn’t be turned away from that school, or have to wait until all the Catholics have been admitted first. That’s not on.

“We all know the practice of people getting their child baptised just so they can get into schools in their own area. That’s ridiculous.”

Ms Doherty, however, said she was “fully supportive” of the 10 per cent cap on past pupils and indicated that the Bill represented a “good start”.