Blind student’s exclusion complaint upheld; €5,000 awarded

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Workplace Relations Commission upheld a blind secondary-school student’s complaint about exclusion from the Summer Provision Scheme and ordered the Department of Education to pay the student €5,000 in compensation.

The case was taken under the Equal Status Acts against the Minister for Education. The proceedings were reported on 1 October 2024.

The Summer Provision Scheme is an administrative programme through which students with additional needs may access educational supports during the summer holidays.

Sinéad Lucey, managing solicitor at the Free Legal Advice Centres, which represented the student, said the minister had argued that the WRC could not hear complaints about government policy decisions or the allocation of resources. She said the adjudicator rejected those objections. FLAC also welcomed a recent expansion of the scheme to include blind secondary-school students.