Parents will not be allowed access to copies of inspection reports on their local primary school, following a decision by the Department of Education.
The Department said it would not release the reports to parents, the public or the media because it would create tensions with the education partners, including the teacher unions.
Media organisations had applied for inspection reports, known as Tuairiscí Scoile, under the Freedom of Information Act, but the Department this week refused to release them to anyone. A spokeswoman for the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said the Minister could not comment on the outcome of Freedom of Information requests.
For several years parents' groups have been lobbying for the release of more information on individual schools. The Department released a report before Christmas based on 50 inspections of primary schools. While the report outlined what the inspectors found, it specifically withheld the names of the schools.
In the decision released this week, senior inspector Mr Seán Ó Murchú outlined several reasons why inspection reports would not be released. He said the effectiveness of the Department's inspection system would be damaged. "The release of the reports to other parties would risk generating a sense of distrust among the school communities, and have the potential to adversely affect the inspection process," he said.
He said he believed the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act meant future inspection reports would also not be released. He said releasing them would create a potentially difficult industrial relations situation for the Department.
"There is a possibility that release might result in reduced co-operation from some of the other parties involved in the inspection process. Therefore it is considered that the release of individual school reports would be contrary to the public interest," he said.
The inspector said reports were given to certain sections of the Department, the board of management of the school and some school staff. However, he said, to put them into the public arena would "in effect deny future access to sensitive detail" and cause people to misinterpret the salient features of the reports themselves.
While the Department appears to be opposed to releasing the information, the Information Commissioner, Mr Murphy, is currently looking at the case, and he may order the Department to alter its position.