A VOCATIONAL Education Committee (VEC) has asked the High Court to quash a Department of Education direction requiring a school to take back a boy who had been expelled.
The boy, who cannot be identified by order of Mr Justice Michael Peart, was expelled by the secondary school last year.
However, his father appealed that decision.
A three-person committee set up under section 29 of the 1998 Education Act allowed the appeal on grounds including a lack of alternative school placements for the boy.
The school was directed on January 11th last to give effect to the committee’s finding.
The VEC claims that the direction is unlawful on grounds including that the committee had failed to address or make a determination on relevant issues that had been raised in respect of the boy’s expulsion.
In judicial review proceedings against the committee, with the boy’s father a notice party, the VEC wants an order quashing the committee’s decision and the consequent direction.
Mr Justice Peart yesterday granted the VEC leave to bring the proceedings and returned the matter to early next month.
Moving the application, Feichin McDonagh SC, for the school, said the section 29 committee had made its determination after an internal appeal within the VEC upheld the original decision by the school to expel the boy.
It seemed that the committee had based its decision on a finding that there was no other school available for the boy but there was no evidence for that finding, he said.
The VEC also claims that the committee had failed to assess the risks to the school posed by the continued enrolment of the boy and that the decision was irrational and in breach of natural and constitutional justice.