By Owen Reid
The High Court has quashed a decision requiring St Molaga's National School in Balbriggan to enrol two sisters after finding that an Education Act appeals committee had exceeded its powers.
The school's board of management refused places to the children, anonymised as C and D, in February 2008. St Molaga's said it had reached capacity after years of rapid growth and inadequate permanent accommodation.
The senior primary school had expanded from 238 pupils in 1998 to more than 450 by 2007. Twelve prefabricated classrooms were in use. The board said it faced shortages of teaching and ancillary space, electrical and fire-safety concerns and difficulties maintaining appropriate class sizes. It had already refused applications from 41 other pupils since September 2007.
The children's parents appealed under section 29 of the Education Act 1998. An appeals committee concluded in April 2008 that St Molaga's had capacity and recommended immediate enrolment. The Department's Secretary General then directed the school accordingly.
Ms Justice Irvine held that section 29 did not give the committee power to substitute its own assessment of a school's capacity for a lawful management decision by the board. Its role, she found, was closer to reviewing whether an enrolment refusal was lawful and reasonable.
The judge also considered what would follow if that interpretation was wrong. She found the committee had relied on matters which did not properly establish capacity, including the children's academic ability, their parents' preference for St Molaga's and future projected pupil numbers.
It had also failed adequately to consider matters central to the board's decision, including accommodation constraints, health and safety, staffing and the school's statutory educational responsibilities. The court criticised the committee's treatment of Department circulars on class sizes and special-needs pupils.
The appeals committee's decisions were therefore to be quashed. The ruling concerned the legality of the appeal process and did not itself determine how the wider shortage of school places in Balbriggan should be resolved.