Data from the Department of Education shows 351 appeals against expulsion of second-level pupils were lodged between 2005 and 2009. Some 271 went all the way to a full hearing of a committee of the Department of Education, with the remainder being withdrawn or otherwise resolved.
A total of 203 (74.9pc) of the cases that were heard were not upheld, while just 68 were decided in favour of the parent.
Where an appeal against an expulsion is upheld, the secretary-general of the department can direct a school to enrol or re-instate a pupil. The figures were released to Fine Gael education spokesperson Brian Hayes.
Mr Hayes last year criticised the fact that more than a quarter of students who were expelled from school were put back into the same classroom after appeal.
He said the figures showed the department was undermining the rights of schools, adding that the department should remove itself from the appeals process and that parents should instead go to the courts.
"This is sending out a very bad message to schools. It's demolishing the right of the schools to come to a decision about a child that they know," he said.
comurphy@herald.ie
- Cormac Murphy