The High Court quashed an Appeals Committee decision that had upheld a family’s appeal against Mullingar Community College’s refusal to enrol their son, finding that the committee had exceeded its jurisdiction.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice O’Keeffe on 10 July 2009, concerned the County Westmeath Vocational Educational Committee’s challenge to the committee’s decision of 15 October 2007. The school’s board had refused the application on 14 August 2007, citing the interests of the school community.
The family appealed under section 29 of the Education Act 1998. The Appeals Committee upheld the appeal and recommended that the student be enrolled in the pre-Leaving Certificate year. It gave four reasons: the school’s transfer policy might conflict with parental choice; the student had no school placement after leaving his previous school; the college had capacity; and the level of misbehaviour did not justify refusal.
The High Court held that a section 29 appeal was confined to the board’s particular decision and the facts existing when that decision was made. The committee could not use the appeal to challenge the school’s enrolment policy itself. The judge also said the Act did not give parents an absolute right to enrol a child in the school of their choice.
The court found that the committee could not rely on the student having no school placement: he remained enrolled at his previous school when the board refused his application in August, and his departure occurred later. The committee’s capacity finding and its assessment of the evidence about misbehaviour were not irrational or unreasonable, the judge said. However, those conclusions did not cure the committee’s jurisdictional error.
The judgment concluded that the Appeals Committee had not acted within its jurisdiction. The source does not state the specific formal order made beyond that conclusion.