Counsel argues State must back Steiner education

The State is constitutionally obliged to provide funding to any group of parents who choose to educate their children in schools other than the recognised national schools, the High Court has been told.

Once the education being provided is primary education and meets the minimum standard specified by the Constitution, the Minister for Education must fund it, it was submitted.

Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC said a school based on the Steiner teaching method in Co Clare was providing primary education and was therefore entitled to be funded by the State.

Counsel was making closing submissions on the 18th day of the hearing of the action taken by children and parents of Cooleenbridge school, Tuamgraney, and the company which runs the school, against the Minister for Education and the State. In the action, the plaintiffs are seeking orders compelling the State to fund the school which was set up in 1986.

The court has heard that the then education minister, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, decided in February 1995 that the school would not be funded. Witnesses from the Department said the decision was based on the Department's view that the teachers in the Steiner school did not have the necessary qualifications and that the school had made inadequate provision for the teaching of Irish. It was also stated the school did not meet the requirements set out in the "Rules for National Schools Under the Department of Education". The challenge to that decision has been taken by Nora O'Shiel, a pupil at Cooleenbridge School, suing through her mother Mrs Margaret Boyle O'Shiel; a number of other pupils and parents of those pupils; and Cooleenbridge Ltd, owner and manager of the school.

Evidence concluded in the case on Wednesday and Mr McGuinness yesterday began his closing submissions on behalf of the school.

Counsel said it was the essence of his case that parents had the freedom to choose what education they wished for their children. Mr McGuinness said the evidence in the case showed the choice of Steiner education had worked for the children concerned and there was a high quality of education being provided at Cooleenbridge.

The choice made by the parents of those children to provide primary education under the Steiner system was unimpeachable. There was no legal mandate under which the State could accord this choice less respect than the choice of parents who sent their children to other schools. The State, through the operation of a non-statutory framework of rules for national schools, could not divest certain children of the right to free primary education, counsel argued.

The hearing before Ms Justice Laffoy continues today.