The hearing of a constitutional action to compel the Department of Education to fund a school in Co Clare based on the Steiner method of education resumes today at the High Court.
The challenge has been taken by Miss Nora O'Shiel, a pupil at Cooleenbridge School, Tuamgraney, 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.
The hearing opened before Ms Justice Laffoy last November 11th and was adjourned on November 27th.
In judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Education, Ireland and the Attorney General, the applicants are seeking a declaration that the school provides primary education and, as a result, the State is constitutionally obliged to make provision for funding it.
The court has heard the school, now located at Tuamgraney and with 105 pupils, was set up in 1986.
The parents claim they sought funding for the school from 1991 and were refused in 1995 on the grounds that the Steiner schools did not conform to the Rules for National Schools Under the Department of Education, published in 1965. It is claimed the school was told neither its teachers nor curriculum met the requirements for recognition.
The case for the State was briefly outlined to the court on November 27th. The State is due to call a number of experts and other witnesses when the hearing resumes today.
In outlining the case for the State, Mr Bill Shipsey SC said that, as far as the State was concerned, the issue for the court to determine was whether the State had a constitutional obligation to fund whatever school parents wished for their children, regardless of the curriculum that was taught or the qualifications of the teachers in that school.
It was not necessary for the court to determine exactly what constituted primary education, he argued.
The court should determine whether, on the facts of the case, the State was constitutionally obliged to grant recognition to the Tuamgraney school with its curriculum and teachers.
He would contend that the State's obligation to provide for primary education was met through the nine established schools and the 3,200 recognised schools. For a school to be recognised by the State, it had to meet the criteria laid down by the State, Mr Shipsey said.
