The Report of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Education (Admissions to School) Bill 2020 has recommended the deletion of s.62(10)(b) of the Education (Admissions to School) Act 2018. The effect of this recommendation, if enacted, would be that schools, when oversubscribed, would no longer be able to give priority to children of parents or grandparents who attended the school. Dr. David Doyle – who was invited by the Joint Committee to make an opening statement and contribute to the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny meeting – argued in favour of the proposal to delete the provision. The summary of the reported stated ‘Significantly, IHREC, the Ombudsman for Children, and Dr David Doyle of Maynooth University argued that the policy is discriminatory’.
Dr. David Doyle is Associate Professor of Law at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology, where he teaches a module on Education Litigation on the Master of Educational Leadership and Management.