It has been claimed in a court in Clonmel, Co
Tipperary, that a secondary school operated an admissions policy which
indirectly discriminated against a Traveller boy.
A ruling in the case involving 13-year-old John Stokes could have
widespread implications for schools' admission policies across the
country.
In December, the Equality Tribunal ruled that the Christian Brothers
High School in Clonmel indirectly discriminated against Travellers.
It said that giving priority to those who had a father in the school
was indirectly discriminating against Travellers, as very few of them
had attended secondary school.
The case was taken on John's behalf by his mother Mary, who gave evidence in court today.
The matter is before Clonmel Civil Court as the school is appealing the decision of the Equality Tribunal.
The tribunal had ruled in John Stokes's favour, ordering the High
School to offer him a place and to review its admissions policy to
prevent indirect discrimination against pupils on any of the nine
grounds covered by the Equality Status Act - gender, marital status,
sexual orientation, age, family status, membership of the Travelling
community, religion, disability and race.
John Stokes was not in court.
His mother said her eldest son is attending school in Fethard, away from his home town, and has to get a bus there every day.
Mrs Stokes is being supported in the case by The Irish Traveller
Movement Independent Law Centre, which had lodged the initial complaint
on behalf of the Stokes family.
It had argued that indirect discrimination occurs where an apparently
neutral provision puts persons of a particular group covered by the
Equal Status Acts at a particular disadvantage.
Representatives for the CBS High School told the court today that in
the past 10 years there had been eight applicants for enrolment from
families of Travellers and all had been successful; John was the only
one who did not get a place.
The court was told there was an oversubscription last year for first
year students, with 174 applicants for 140 available places.
Counsel for Mary Stokes argued that one section of the admissions
policy (the 'father/son' rule) effectively gave an unfair advantage to
non-Travellers.
33 boys had brothers in the school, 16 had brothers who were former
pupils and 36 boys on the list had fathers who previously attended the
school.
A lottery had taken place and John and a number of other boys had not
been successful. He was the only Traveller child seeking a place last
year.
He did meet the school's other admission conditions as he is a Roman Catholic and did attend a local feeder primary school.
Through his mother, and supported by the Irish Traveller Movement,
the teenager took a case of indirect discrimination to the Equality
Tribunal on the grounds that, as he was from the Travelling community,
his father was statistically much less likely than people from the
settled community to have had a secondary education.
As John was the eldest in the family, an older brother could not have been a past-pupil.
Lengthy evidence was given by both sides today, with the school denying its admissions policy was in any way discriminatory.
Judge Tom Teehan adjourned the matter to Monday 4 July for final submissions from both sides.