Tipperary school wins appeal in Traveller discrimination case
A County Tipperary school has today won an appeal against an Equality Tribunal ruling that it discriminated against Travellers in its admissions policy.
Christian Brothers High School of Clonmel had been found by the Equality Tribunal to have indirectly discriminated against Travellers, over its admissions policy, requiring pupils to have a parent who had attended previously.
However the school appealed the ruling to the Clonmel Circuit Court and today judge Tom Teehan found in the schools' favour.
He said that the parental rule did indirectly discriminate against certain groupings such as Travellers, Polish or Nigerian citizens who had not previously attended the school.
However he said there was an onus on the school to prove that such measures were appropriate and necessary and he found that in both cases that such a policy was appropriate given that there were more students applying for places than there were places available.
